


Hilt & Pommel

by Starcrossedsky



Series: Bladework [11]
Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Diaspora Feelings Jam, Families of Choice, Political AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27472921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starcrossedsky/pseuds/Starcrossedsky
Summary: Part of growing up is coming face to face with the reality that you can't understand everyone. Not their ideas of home, or family, or forgiveness.Gailardia Galan Gardios, faced with the idea of any of these things, runs away and hides the part of himself that thinks about those things. But Guy Cecil is running out of places to run to and places to hide.
Relationships: Guy Cecil & Asch the Bloody, Guy Cecil & Luke fon Fabre
Series: Bladework [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/755841
Comments: 11
Kudos: 29





	Hilt & Pommel

**Author's Note:**

> wait am I seriously the only one who has ever used a tag for Class M in the history of AO3? somebody get me a tag wrangler...
> 
> Anyway, another autumn, another Bladework update! This is the longest so far because there was a lot of stuff I needed to get in and no real good place to stop. Some of the end parts I've been sitting on for over two years, so please enjoy them!
> 
> Also, I've been in this fandom for eight years now? how time... flies... (like a banana)
> 
> OH RIGHT almost forgot to mention: Ion's combat style from here on is drawn off his Tales of the Rays portrayal, thank you Rays devs for giving this to me.

The way everyone changes and relaxes once you get back to Keterburg is absolutely wild. You hadn't thought Ion was that important to the group, when you were crossing Malkuth, but the time without him just makes it obvious how wrong you were.

It isn't just that Asch relaxes something he was holding on edge, though you think that's a big part of it. Without Ion, even when he relaxed, he was still _alert_ , like he expected to have to move at any moment. He could joke around, sure, but he wasn't really at ease. 

Luke and Anise have relaxed, too. Luke, especially, seems to have gotten something off his mind, and stays pretty attached to Ion, too. It's a good thing he and Asch are getting along better than they did, if 'better' means squabbling like the siblings they look like instead of the weird, tense silence. And Anise being more relaxed, with Ion to fuss over again, means that she's less interested in harassing _you_ , so it's a win all around.

Jade doesn't seem quite like his usual self until after you visit his sister again and then leave port, but that's fine. It probably has a lot of complicated memories for him, and Jade is nothing if not complicated.

The only one who really seems to not relax at all is Tear.

\----

Well, no, you take that back.

 _Ion_ isn't very relaxed, at least once you get on the ship. When it isn't his turn at the bridge - where he takes to Jade's instructions like a real technician, asking questions instead of just accepting the information on which gauges to panic about - he stays as far away from the engines as possible, even if it drives him onto the frosty front deck.

That's where you find him, as the ship is entering warmer waters, when you come out to check the prow for ice damage. It should be fine, but you can't know for sure without looking. 

Ion stands on the foremost part of the deck, cloak wrapped around him tightly. He hasn't bothered to put his hairpiece in, you notice, his hair flying wildly in the wind. 

"Hey, Fon Master," you call out. It never hurts to use proper manners; it also never hurts to announce yourself, not with this group. Ion isn't nearly as jumpy as Asch or Tear, but you don't see any reason to take chances.

Sure enough, he starts a little, before turning in your direction. With the wind blowing his hair into disarray, he looks like someone else, as different from his usual self as Luke and Asch are from each other. Once he sees you, the smile he always wears falls into place quickly. 

"Guy!" he calls back. "What brings you out here?"

"Just checking on the front hull," you say, once you're close enough to him that you're not yelling over the wind. It's still pretty loud. "Gotta make sure we didn't take any damage from ice in the water, you know?"

Ion nods, and then leans forward over the railing. "What are we looking for?" he asks.

You're a little surprised, but you don't think you can complain about the help, either. (Ion is always so _eager_ to help. It reminds you of Luke ( _Asch_ ), when he was still small. Things you didn't appreciate about him until afterwards.)

So you lean over the railing with him - hooking your leg behind his, so that if he leans too far forward, he'll get caught on you before he falls. If you lose Ion into this cold water, Asch will probably throw you in after him without a second thought, regardless of him having forgiven you for your old sins.

"Just any dents in the hull," you say. "Or any places where the water seems to swirl strangely. That might indicate damage below the waterline."

Ion looks at you and nods, and then turns his attention to his side of the ship. You leave him to looking over that side, focusing your attention on yours. The silence lasts for a few minutes, with just Ion adjusting how he stands once to lean a little further forward. It results in him standing on one tip-toe to maximize his height, which makes you glad that you've secured him with your own body at least a little.

"I don't see anything," he says eventually, sliding back to secure footing.

"I don't either," you say, straightening up and turning around to put your back against the railing. It's less cold on your face that way. "Had to check, though."

"Of course," he replies. "We wouldn't want any leaks on the open sea."

"Yeah," you agree. "So what brings you out here?"

Ion doesn't glance away, even though he hesitates. But there's something a little blanker about his expression. "There's something I need to tell everyone," he says. "But I don't know how."

You frown. You have a bad feeling, but, even so, you ask, "Something about Van?"

Ion nods. "Something he told me about the Seventh Fonstone."

And though Ion isn't expressive at the best of times, something about the way he looks now just makes your bad feeling worse.

(You still don't like thinking about what Van turned into. He's one of the only people that you can still call anything like family, and it's different with Pere. Pere raised you, in place of your parents.)

"Might be better to wait until we're back in Sheridan," you say. "Give everyone space to deal with it without getting in each other's hair." 

You mostly mean Asch, and from the faint smile Ion gives you, you think maybe he knows that's exactly who you mean. 

"That's what I thought, too," Ion says. "There's nothing we can do until then, either way. But... it has to do with the Closed Score."

You bite down your reaction, try to keep your face neutral. When it comes to the Closed Score, you're in the same camp as Asch. Throw the doors open, let the secrets out. It shouldn't exist. But you can see where it would be more complicated for Ion, who was raised in the Order - who wasn't even born until after the Hod War.

(He must not know. You didn't really think that Asch would have told anyone, but if he had, you're sure it would have been Ion. If he knew, would he be asking your advice?)

"I think you have to decide if it's important enough for everyone to know about, then," you say, offering advice that isn't really advice. "That's your job as Fon Master, isn't it?"

Ion smiles. "I suppose it is," he says. "Thank you, Guy."

 _I haven't done anything for you to thank me for_ , you think to yourself, even as you say aloud, "Not a problem. If that's all that's on your mind, though, you should probably come in before you catch cold."

Ion sighs, pulling his cloak tighter around himself. "I suppose you're right."

\----

The morning you're supposed to reach port, you find yourself alone on the bridge with Tear.

It's a situation you've been kind of nervous about. You know she's Van's sister, but that doesn't mean that he told her anything about you, or about Hod. If anything, based on some of the things she says, some of the things you've heard _Asch_ say to _her_ , you think she doesn't know much about Hod at all.

Van never told you about her. You can vaguely remember their mother, you think, more as a voice humming or quietly singing than anything else. But if Van didn't tell you about her, you don't think he would have told her about you.

"Hey, uh, Tear?" you ask, over the sound of the machinery below the bridge. "Can we talk for a minute?"

She looks up, hair falling over her face as usual. _Stoic_ as usual, but there's some curiosity in her expression. "Of course. What is it?"

You hesitate, taking a deep breath. "I knew your brother before you were born. Just... wanted you to know that, I guess."

It's neutral enough, that only someone who knew about Van would have any idea what you _really_ mean. If anyone else was listening in... Well, Asch already knows. He didn't exactly make any bones about knowing where Tear comes from, either, though you think you might have been the only person who recognized what he meant.

(You, and Jade. You don't think anything gets past Jade, and someone from the Malkuth military would have to know that there were _some_ survivors of the Hod disaster. You just hope he doesn't know about you.)

Tear stares at you for a moment, and then closes her eyes. "I see. So you're from Hod. I'm sorry for your loss."

It's not what you expected to hear, and you can't even smile to hide how off-balance it makes you. It's one thing for her to say Hod had nothing to do with her to Asch, but... 

You find yourself growing somber, instead. "Yeah... I lost everything. Van and Pere were the only things I had left, and I didn't know Van had survived until five years later."

"I'm sorry," she says, with more emotion this time.

"He never said anything about you," you continue. "I didn't even know he _had_ a sister until we met. It just... With everything that's happened, it makes me wonder how much more he's hiding." Your hands tighten, even though you keep your tone casual. It's a trick you had to learn at Fabre manor, keeping all of that out of your voice.

Tear says, "I'm sure it's more than any of us know. The things he's done... I don't want to believe that the brother who raised me could do such a thing."

"I don't either," you say. "Even though I know there are other survivors out there, I was so young when it happened that I barely remember anyone outside our household. Finding out what Van did to Asch... It almost makes me wish he hadn't come back."

It's more than you maybe should say, but it just comes right out. And even if Tear forswears Hod, she's clearly keeping as many secrets as any other survivor. You won't ask, but maybe if you're a little more honest with her...

Tear ducks her head, hiding most of her expression behind her hair, and looks back at the console in front of her. "It's like poison," she says. "Knowing that your happiness came at the cost of someone else's."

"Yeah," you say. That's not all of it, but that's definitely a part of it. (The other part is that you never would have known Asch and Luke without Van, and that maybe you might have lived a life free of that desire for revenge, somewhere else, if Van hadn't found you again.) "Asch really looked up to Van as a kid, too - before the kidnapping, I mean. He was really great at playing the older brother. I just wish I didn't feel like it was all a lie."

"I don't think it was," she says. "At least not whatever you had with him before. My brother... He always had to hide it, but he loved Hod. He loved to tell me stories about it, sing me songs... He stopped as I got older, but I thought it was just because he was too busy, especially as he rose in rank. I never thought it was because..."

"...I guess I know what you mean," you say. "But it's hard to be jealous of Asch getting Van's attention for something so horrible."

She jerks her head, wandering gaze directed at you, in a way that tells you that you've seen her maybe a little _too_ clearly. "I shouldn't be so resentful," she says. "Asch was the first person at the Order who looked at what I could do, instead of seeing me in Van's shadow. But the way he sees the world is so uncompromising. He doesn't see any other way of thinking as _right_ , and he's as bad as Van that way."

"Only makes sense, considering who raised him," you say. 

Tear nods. "I think at times I hate him. And I hate that he doesn't seem to _care_."

Geez. Whatever secret's going on between them, whatever Order drama is going on there, must be bigger than you thought. You think about the time you talked to Asch like this, and it's your turn to look at the console in front of you as you think. A needle vibrates in its position as the engines kick up.

"More than anything, Asch doesn't want to be like Van," you say. "So I think he'd rather have people hate him, than change who he is to make them like him. He doesn't want to be the kind of manipulator Van is."

"If he's some other kind of manipulator instead, is that really any better?" Tear asks.

"You'd have to ask him," you say. "He'd probably say yes, though."

"Talking about me?"

Both you and Tear startle, heads jerking up, at the sound of Jade's voice. _Shit_ , you think to yourself, _just how much did he hear?_

You have a feeling that the smile on Jade's face means he heard _enough_. Shit. But all he does is step up to his usual command position at the bridge, setting a steaming mug down at the console.

"Don't worry," he says cheerfully. "Asch has lines he won't cross, even if they don't make sense to anyone else. That's the difference between him and Van, or even him and myself at that age. There are still things in this world that hold terrors for him, so there are depths he won't sink to."

"That's very comforting," Tear says flatly, sounding not comforted at all. It's enough that you can put your smile back on.

"It is for me," Jade says, and you think he almost means it. But then quick as usual, the moment of half-genuineness is gone, replaced by a too-cheerful smile.

"...Right," Tear says, with just a bit of uncertainty. You're not going to be able to talk about the subject of Hod any more with Jade here, so you catch her eye, shrug, and turn back to the console in front of you. 

You suppose you can't blame Tear for rejecting Hod. It's probably the safer option, if nothing else, and you know there are people who have tried to forget it for that reason. You pretend, for that reason, cultivated something like a Kimlascan accent and Kimlascan manners so that no one would notice.

But you couldn't ever truly reject it, yourself. Everything that happened is too much a part of you to ever let it go.

And you can't help but wonder, if Tear doesn't think of Hod as her homeland, then what kind of place is it that she calls home?

\----

Your little ship finally pulls into port in Sheridan without fanfare, and your group discreetly disembarks. You take note of the guards, a habit you picked up even before you started travelling with the most paranoid person on the planet, and the state of the shipyard.

"Looks like most of the military left," you say. 

"Gone to support the troops in Chesedonia and Kaitzur, no doubt," Jade says. 

"And every ship that could be spared," Natalia says, looking back and forth over the docks. You can't blame her for being depressed.

"Malkuth's gonna have it rough," Anise says. 

"Don't underestimate them," Asch says. "Emperor Peony knew war was more likely than not. I'm sure Malkuth is prepared."

"Still," Natalia says. "We should resolve things with Van as quickly as possible, so that we can return to Baticul and put an end to this war under false pretense as soon as we can."

"With the Order involved, I don't think it's going to be that easy..." Luke says. 

"Unfortunately, that's quite correct," Ion says. He runs his fingers along his forehead under his bangs; it looks something like the gesture you've noticed Asch doing when he's nervous, except side-to-side instead of front-to-back. Probably because of the Fon Master's headdress, though Ion isn't wearing it at the moment. "There's something I need to tell all of you, once we get somewhere with a little more privacy."

"Something Van told you?" Asch asks, his voice filled with suspicion, and Ion just nods.

"Let's make our way to the Albiore lab, then," Jade says. "That should serve well enough."

\----

Class M is enthusiastic for your return. Tamara is especially pleased to inform you that Ginji has been awake since you left, with no apparent signs of head trauma other than fuzzy memories of the crash itself. He's still in recovery, though.

"I'm glad to hear it," Natalia says, hands pressed together in front of her chest. "We should go visit him when we're done here."

"I'm sure he'd appreciate it," Tamara says.

"He really wanted to thank you properly," Iemon adds. "Though he was rather flustered when Noelle told him that it was the princess who saved his life."

Natalia turns slightly pink and glances away. You direct attention away from her by asking, "So what was it you wanted to tell us, Fon Master?"

Ion takes a deep breath, his expression grave, and looks around the group.

"As most of you already know, the Seventh Fonstone, the last piece of Yulia's Score, has never been located by the Order," he begins. Everyone except Luke looks like they're following along, though Asch and Tear are wearing almost matching scowls. (Luke, for his part, looks confused but nudges Natalia in the side, and you see her nod at him silently. Okay, good, he has someone who can catch him up later.) "The end of the records in the Sixth Fonstone is fast approaching - the war that has just begun is the last major event recorded within it."

"The end of Yulia's Score is _that_ close?" Anise says in shock, before putting her hands over her mouth and gesturing for Ion to ignore her outburst and keep going.

"It is," Ion says. "And that... is the problem. According to Van, the Seventh Fonstone was on Hod, in the keeping of Yulia's descendants. He claims to know its contents."

"First I've heard of that," Asch says. "Tear?"

"I've never heard him say anything about it, either," Tear replies. "However, if being one of Yulia's descendants means anything beyond having the capability to use her fonic hymns, he's never spoken to me about it."

 _And you didn't ask, because you don't care about Hod,_ you find yourself thinking bitterly. You don't show it on the outside, though, instead redirecting your attention to Ion.

The Fon Master has a somewhat blank expression on his face, but the way he shifts his weight makes you think he's still nervous. "I think that Van believes in what he claimed to be the contents of the Seventh Fonstone," he says. "Even if it is a bit suspiciously convenient that it is in a place where we could never hope to check for ourselves. The way he spoke about it... Van is a liar, but I don't think that was an act."

"And what is it that he claimed it to say?" Jade asks.

"That the Seventh Fonstone foretold the end of the world," Ion says. "That the Planet Storm itself will cause the Sephiroth trees to fail, and the entire world will sink into the miasma as Hod did."

"Is that what really happened to Hod?" you say, trying to keep all the emotion out of your voice, to sound less desperate to know than you really are.

"It is," Tear confirms, hesitantly. "The reason the area around Hod is sealed off is because there's a gap in the crust of the planet, from which the miasma can flow freely."

"The entire world winding up like that..." Natalia says. She folds her hands in front of herself, squeezing her fingers together. "As much as I am loath to say it, I cannot blame Van for taking extreme action in the face of that threat."

"But if that's true, then why isn't he working to put the Score off track?" Luke asks. "Why is he working with Mohs?"

"He's probably just planning on using Mohs the same way he does everyone else," Asch says. His expression is dark, the venomous look he always gets at the mention of Van in full swing.

"I agree," Ion says. "According to Van himself... His intention is not to throw the Score off track. It's to create a replica world where no one knows of the Score at all."

The entire aura of the room palpably changes. Class M, who had been listening quietly up to this point, glance at each other nervously. Asch's look of venom fades into one that can only be described as _shaken_ , and Natalia covers her mouth with her hands.

But the one who transforms most is Jade. The difference is almost imperceptible, but it makes you take a step away from him, and you see Anise doing likewise. It makes all the things you've seen and heard from Asch when he's talking about Van seem almost _soft_.

"That would fit with his continued interest in the subject," Jade says, and even though he's still _smiling_ there's something in it that makes you want to run. "I think we had best prioritize our investigation of Ortion Cavern, now that we have the matter of the ship sorted out, don't you agree, Your Highness?"

Natalia almost flinches as he looks at her. "I do agree," she says. "The safety of the world as a whole takes priority over the war."

"It's unfortunate that we can't verify the Score ourselves, but if that is truly Van's goal, then we can work to stop it," Tear says.

"Is there some way of telling if the Sephiroth are really going to collapse?" Luke asks. "That's not the same as reading the Score to find out if it really says that, but it's something."

"Van had me remove the Daathic Seals from every Passage Ring we visited," Ion says. "All except Akzeriuth and Mount Roneal. But that still leaves the Yulian and Albertesque Seals, unless Tear is capable of opening the Yulian."

Tear shakes her head. "I'm afraid not," she says. "Or at least, I don't know how. It's likely my brother does, but I suppose it's my fault for not taking the chance to learn the things he knows."

"It's okay, Tear," you say. "You couldn't have expected that he was planning something like this. None of us could."

"It's still my failure," Tear says, "but thank you, Guy."

"That still leaves the Albertesque Seal," Jade says. "Unless Van knows the secret of opening that as well."

Ion shakes his head. "I don't believe so. We took shelter from the heat of the day in the Sephiroth in Meggiora, and he couldn't approach the mechanisms of the Passage Ring because of it. That seal is tied to Akzeriuth and Hod; as long as the Sephiroth in Akzeriuth stands, it will remain in the way of anyone who wants to access the Passage Rings, for good or ill."

"There must be some way of opening it other than destroying Akzeriuth," you say. "Some record in Daath might tell us."

"And it would take a great deal of research to find, no doubt," Jade says. "Research that Van, living in Daath for as long as he has, would have had more than enough time to do. No, I think that whatever the key to the Albertesque Seal is, it more than likely was destroyed along with Hod and the Seventh Fonstone."

You look at the floor, frowning. You can't deny that he has a point. You could go looking in Daath, but finding a record that Van hasn't already seen... The chances are slim to none. Even looking in the Closed Score, and only Ion and Asch could go looking for those, even if the rest of you could look through the main part of the Order's library.

Speaking of Asch, when you glance up, he's still staring at the same spot, like he hasn't heard anything anyone's said. It's difficult to see, because the movement is so small, but you think his shoulders are shaking.

"Asch?" you call, quietly. Hopefully you can pull him out of it without having to touch him, because that would probably end badly. "You still with us?"

He twitches hard at the sound of his name, and takes a deep breath. "Sorry," he says. "You were saying?"

"Albertesque Seal," you say. "Any ideas?"

Asch shakes his head. "Nothing that Van wouldn't have already thought of," he says. 

"Let's put it aside for now, then," Natalia says. "We can consider the problem of the Sephiroth while we investigate Ortion Cavern. It's most of the way around the continent, isn't it?"

"Exactly so," Jade says. The aura around him has finally dissipated enough that he looks normal. "Though I would like to take a look at the Sephiroth at Meggiora as well while we're in the area, assuming Ion can remember the way."

"I can," Ion says. "You're right, it's worth investigating while we have the chance."

"And while you do that," Tamara says, taking a look at the notes Jade's translated and given them, "we'll work on the Albiore. If we're lucky, you'll be leaving by air the next time you come here."

"If there's anything we can do to help..." Natalia starts.

"Just leave that one here with us for a while," Aston says, gesturing at Jade. "Go see Ginji and Noelle, and we'll take care of the Albiore.

Natalia smiles, and gives them a bow. "Thank you so much," she says. "We'll go see them right now."

As the group begins to file out, you make it a point to choreograph your intentions well before going to nudge Asch in the side. He avoids the contact seemingly on auto-pilot, but follows everyone else out the door.

\----

Once you're outside the building, you say, "We probably don't _all_ need to go. That's way too many visitors at once. Asch, you wanna head back to the inn?"

He nods, still looking a little blank. "Yeah, sounds good."

You see concern flick over Natalia's face, briefly, before she nods at you, a tiny little motion just like the two of you used to share when Luke was much younger and the two of you had to keep him out of trouble. "That's a good idea," she says. "I know you don't much like crowds, anyway."

"I'll stay behind as well," Ion says. His usual smile is back in place. "I didn't have anything to do with the rescue, so it's a bit presumptuous for me to visit, isn't it?"

"I'm sure they wouldn't mind," Luke says. "With you being the Fon Master and all." Something seems a little off about the way he says it, though you can't put your finger on what.

Ion's smile at Luke is a little more genuine. "It's all right. I could use the fresh air, and Anise can give Ginji well-wishes on my behalf."

"Sure," Anise says, frowning a little. "Just be careful, okay?"

"Don't worry," you tell her. "I won't let either of them out of my sight." You wink dramatically, and that's enough to get her to smile.

Once the rest of the group is gone, you and Ion turn towards Asch with what must be the same thought.

"Asch?" Ion asks. "Are you here?"

It's an almost too-simple way of phrasing it, but it's enough to get Asch to react, shaking his head and running his hands through his hair. You're not sure if the motion is intended to be an answer to the question or not.

"Let's get somewhere away from these machines," he says. 

"In Sheridan?" you say. "That's a tall order, but I think we can probably find somewhere. Come on."

True to your word, you don't take your eyes off the two of them, which means that you see when Ion slips one hand into Asch's, gripping the redhead's hand to keep him present and tugging him along after you as you lead them away from the main part of the city.

\----

The place you end up is the Albiore hangar, which is empty of people at the moment - Class M being busy with Jade and not allowing their team to work without their oversight - and thankfully almost silent. There's the hum of engineering lighting overhead, but you quietly slip aside to turn that off as Ion leads Asch to the break area to sit. 

When you're done, the hangar is mostly dark, except for the afternoon light coming in the gap of the quarter-open bay door. You step lightly over a couple cables to join Asch and Ion.

"Want to talk about it?" you ask, after the way Asch looks over at your footsteps and relaxes reveals that he's still with you. In the seat next to him, Ion is still holding his hand.

"Not really," Asch replies almost immediately, but there's a bit of humor in his expression, a paper-thin bit of wryness that says that he knows that he should. You don't put any pressure on him, instead sitting in a chair to the side of him and Ion and resting one foot on your knee. (People are more relaxed when you sit next to them than across from them.)

"I'm sorry," Ion says. "I didn't think that mentioning fomicry like that would make you react that way."

"Nothing you could have done about it," Asch says, shaking his head. He glances down at their joined hands, as though surprised, but then reaches up and brushes his other hand through his hair. It takes you a moment to realize why the gesture seems off - he usually does the hair brushing thing with his right hand, which is the one Ion is holding, but he does it just as seamlessly with his left. "It's not your fault Van thinks fomicry is the solution to everything."

Ion glances at you, pauses, and then says, "No, but I have a better idea of why it's so bad for you to think about, now. Sync used a curse slot on me while I was in their care." It is typically Ion that you can't tell if 'care' is supposed to be sarcastic or not. "It was... enlightening, about my predecessor."

The words are clearly carefully chosen for your benefit, with the way Ion's eyes don't leave you as he says it, but you have no idea what he's talking about. Though, you suppose if there was fomicry research being done on Hod, Evanos would have been in a better position to know about it than Ion.

"Sync used the curse slot on you?!" Asch says, jerking into sitting up straight instead of his previous slump. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"It's less important than what Van was up to," Ion says. "Besides, I removed it every time he did, so it never sunk in deep."

"That doesn't mean it's _nothing_ ," Asch says. "Especially if it means you were using Daathic Artes that regularly."

"It's fine, Asch," Ion says. "Really. It... wasn't pleasant, but I didn't come to any harm."

That seems like a decent time to cut in and remind Asch that you're here. "Just because it doesn't hurt you physically, doesn't mean it doesn't hurt you," you say. "That's the reason Asch is so screwed up by the idea of what Van's planning, right?"

Asch pauses, then nods, leaning back in his seat. He hasn't let go of Ion's hand, you notice. It's a moment of quiet before he keeps talking.

"No one should have to go through that," he says. "And Van's planning to do it to everyone on Auldrant. As if I didn't have enough reason to hate him..." He glances back at Ion. "And let me guess, he still thinks there's even a remote possibility that I'd _go along with that_."

Ion sighs, and nods. "He intends to use Lorelei itself as the seed for his replica world," he says. "And he claims that your hyperresonance is the only way to destroy Lorelei the way he wants."

Asch groans, finally releasing Ion's hand in order to bury his face in his own. 

"Forgive me if this is a stupid question," you say, "but does Lorelei even _exist_? It's one thing for Van to say that, being Yulia's descendant and all, but does anyone really know for sure?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Asch says. "At least as far as we can guess, it's the source of the headaches Luke and I have been getting since he was born."

It takes you a minute to realize what he means. You didn't realize that Asch got the headaches too - he never had them as a kid, so everyone figured that they were linked to the trauma of the kidnapping, but that's stupid, you realize. There was... Well, there clearly was _trauma_ from the kidnapping, but none that would have affected Luke.

"The voice he hears is Lorelei?" you say. "Shit. Van knows about the headaches, too."

"I never told him I heard a voice in mine, but that probably doesn't matter," Asch says. He straightens, brushing his hair back into place with his fingers again. "I don't know if he would have put it together with Lorelei, but we can't assume he didn't."

"Have you told Jade about this?" Ion asks. Asch shakes his head. "You probably should," the Fon Master continues. "He might have some ideas."

"I'll stick it on the to-do list for the next time I feel like having him figure out all my secrets," Asch says. You chuckle awkwardly, even as you can't help but get nervous. If Asch thinks Jade can figure out all _his_ secrets that easily, what does that mean for yours?

"Sounds like you're feeling better," you say. He must be if he's joking around, even in that bitingly sarcastic way.

Asch just groans. "Better if I have a problem to focus on," he says. "Something that keeps my mind from going back to it."

You nod. "Well, at least if Van can't create his replica world without you destroying Lorelei, that's another thing in his way, right?" you say. "And a thing we have control over, even."

"Me or Luke," Asch corrects. "There's no reason to think that he isn't capable of hyperresonance as well, at this point."

"Yeah, well, I don't think Luke is exactly inclined to help him out, either," you say. "He doesn't hate Van the way you do, but honestly, I don't think _anyone_ hates him the way you do."

"No one else alive has been through what he put me through," Asch says. "That's a good thing."

"I suppose it doesn't matter how much people suffer if they're going to die anyway," Ion says. "Or at least I imagine that's what Van's thinking."

"That's the same as Hod," you say. "He just - "

You stop yourself, looking away from Ion's curious expression to Asch. Asch just raises his eyebrows at you.

"Van and Tear's origins aren't a secret I've kept from Ion," he says carefully. "Though I think most people would be able to guess now, knowing that Van knows the contents of the fonstone on Hod."

"Oh, I did say that, didn't I?" Ion says. "I was so caught up in what he told me, I forgot that that wasn't common knowledge among you all."

"It's not just you," you say. "Asch and Tear had a couple fights about Hod while you were gone that... Well, it was pretty clear to me what they were talking about, anyway."

Asch winces. "I'm the keeper of damn near every secret anyone has," he says. "I hate being Special Operations."

"I heard someone say once that the only way two people can keep a secret is if one of them is dead," you say. 

"It really does feel like the truth sometimes," Ion says. "Though, are you sure you didn't hear that from Jade? It sounds like something he'd say."

"It does, doesn't it?" you say. 

"Jade's strategy for keeping secrets is to just say nothing at all," Asch says. "I don't really have that luxury."

"You'd rather have everything out in the open, huh?" you say. 

"It's simpler that way," Asch says. For once, he sounds like Luke, like a normal grumpy teenager. "Simple and I don't see each other much."

You chuckle. Ion smiles so hard he's almost grinning. 

"You don't exactly make my job any simpler, either," he says. But then he glances to you, and adds, "I won't ask. Whatever secrets you have are your business, Guy."

You smile weakly. "Thanks, Fon Master. It's good to know that not everyone is as nosy as this guy. But it's pretty obvious, isn't it?"

"Well, I'm sure Jade's figured it out," Asch says. 

"I told Tear," you say. "I thought she deserved to know."

Asch just nods. Ion, still smiling, says, "I think it's fine if you aren't ready to tell everyone at once. Things from that far in the past... They're hard to talk about, sometimes."

"That far in the past, huh..." you repeat. It's obvious what Ion is doing - letting you know that he knows, without saying it outright. You smile, and say, "It doesn't have to be a long time ago, either. If you need to talk about anything, you know we're always ready to listen, right?"

Ion shifts uncomfortably under your gaze. "It really is fine," he says. 

You think, from Asch's expression, that he probably doesn't agree, but whatever it's about is clearly Order business. You'll return the favor and not demand to know Ion's secrets, if he's going to leave yours alone. It's the least you can do.

"Just making sure," you hedge. "Think the others are done with their hospital visit yet?"

"Probably," Asch says with a sigh, standing up and giving his hair one final adjustment. "Let's head back. And... Thanks."

"It's nothing you wouldn't do for me," you say, and apparently it's the right thing, because Asch actually _smiles_ before he turns towards the hangar door, and if that's not a miracle, you don't know what is.

\----

The others had a nice visit with Ginji, apparently, though Natalia blushes when Luke describes the pilot's profuse thanks. Anise is quick to jump in with, "I think someone has an admirer~," and at that point the princess becomes too flustered to talk, hiding her face behind her hands.

It's mostly unexpected because you grew up with a Natalia who always, always talked about her engagement to Luke when the subject of romance was brought up, whether that was before or after the kidnapping. Very suddenly, she seems to have moved past it, and you can only think that it's because she's realized that neither Asch nor Luke is the storybook prince she had always believed in.

Well, good for her and about time. The way Kimlascan nobles are downright _excited_ about their inbreeding was always one of your bigger problems with them as a culture.

(Also, if anyone asked you, you'd say that Asch at least is probably too screwed up to be getting married any time soon. You wouldn't say it _unless_ someone asked, but you wouldn't lie about it, either.)

No one is quite ready to go back to the inn; after so long cooped up on board the ship, no one wants to go be cooped up in the same rooms in a building with each other. Since it's not that late in the afternoon, you all split up to go sightseeing a bit.

As exciting as the town still is for you, you can't bring yourself to look at the records of Sheridan's history when you know history is _happening_ in one of the workshops right now. So you head back to where Class M and Jade are working and let yourself in.

They've pulled out the second flightstone and its half-finished housing, and are bent over some of the papers Jade extracted from the basement in Keterburg. Not all of them are to do with fontech, much less the chair, but there were still ten years or so of secret coded notes down there.

You distinctly remember one set of pages that Jade read through and then set on fire on the deck, letting the ashes blow out over the water.

For now, he's the only one who notices you reentering the lab, lifting his head to nod at you as you descend the stairs. Class M is too busy arguing amongst themselves.

"No problems with our companions, I hope," he says.

"Nothing we couldn't talk out," you say. "They went exploring. I think Ion was talking about getting different clothes."

Jade nods. "White is difficult to keep clean on a journey such as ours," he says. "Especially in the desert or in an engine room."

"The engine room?" you repeat.

"You hadn't noticed?" Jade says. "I assumed he was taking after you, with the sudden interest in Dawn Age fontech."

You shake your head. "He hasn't said anything to me about it," you say. "He helped me check the hull for ice damage when we hit warmer waters, but I figured that was just him wanting to help out."

"Interesting." Jade gestures at the first flight stone, set off to the side of the work tables. "Perhaps we could have him take a look at that. He's the keeper of all Daath's secrets, after all."

"Actually, I think Asch confessed to being that about an hour ago," you say.

"Would he actually help?" Aston cuts in. "Not to doubt the Fon Master, of course, but Daath hasn't been friendly with us lately."

"It was Evanos who withdrew support when you began looking into Dawn Age relics, wasn't it?" Jade asks. It's a question you know he already knows the answer to, he's just looking for confirmation, which he gets from their nods. "Ion has very different opinions on policy from his predecessor; unfortunately, the Grand Maestro has stifled most of them."

"Makes sense," Iemon says. "Even if he's the Fon Master, it's hard to take a kid that age seriously in politics."

Jade smiles, a real one as far as you can tell. "It's truly a pity that people have been judging him by his age instead of his ideals. Ion was truly born for the role he has."

"Can't hurt to ask," Tamara says. "Bring him around in the morning. Worst thing he can say is no."

You nod. "Mohs is really conservative," you say. "He's about half of our problems right now."

"The war," Tamara says with a nod. "The military made off with about half of our technicians to work on warships and weapons. That's another reason progress is slowed."

"Well, at least it means the soldiers are mostly gone," Aston says. "That's good news for you, Jade. You're still a bit conspicuous."

"I suppose I _should_ take a leaf from Asch's book and get civilian clothes, at least as long as we're operating in technically-Kimlascan lands," Jade says with a sigh. "He does have good ideas from time to time."

You roll your eyes. "Anyway, Ion's in a better position to get information about Dawn Age fontech than any of the rest of us," you say. "And he's been pretty open about having more liberal policies than the rest of the Order."

Actually, his policies are so liberal that it defies almost any explanation, considering his willingness to expose the Closed Score. Most Scorers aren't even willing to acknowledge that it _exists_ , even though everyone knows that there's an Order ban on revealing Scores of death. But when it comes to things like Hod, getting the Order to acknowledge that there was even a Score about it is like pulling teeth.

"Unfortunately, we won't be visiting Daath any time soon," Jade says. "I doubt he's had much research before now, so I wouldn't get their hopes up too far, Guy."

"Still, it's worth a try, isn't it?" you say. Jade's constant cynicism is almost as wearing on a normal person as Asch's paranoia.

"If nothing else, the Fon Master's blessing on the project would work wonders politically," Tamara points out. "Not that I _miss_ having the Order poking around all the time, mind you, but a real healer or two would be a huge boon. We can't expect the princess to conveniently show up for every industrial accident."

"Well, if nothing else, Daath _is_ throwing in with Kimlasca at the moment," Jade says. "Perhaps it won't even be that unpopular of a move. But you'd have to ask Ion or Asch, I'm afraid; I'm hardly up to date on Daath's politics."

That's a lie if you've ever heard one. But you don't say anything.

"If you're off to the markets, you'd best get going," Tamara says. "There's not much more we can get done on this today anyway." She turns a weak smile in your direction. "Not that I don't appreciate having a youngster with a strong back offering to help out, but all you'd be doing is watching us read through Jade's transcription of these research notes."

You wouldn't mind having the chance to look around the workshop more, but you recognize a polite dismissal when you get one. "Yeah, and the markets are probably going to close soon," you say. "I'll get this guy out of your hair for a while."

"Going to lead me away, are you?" Jade says, and you have to believe that the faint innuendo is as intentionally unsettling as everything _else_ he does, for your own peace of mind. You don't give him the satisfaction of a reaction beyond a small sigh, and do in fact lead the way out of the workshop.

Once you're outside, Jade steps up to keep pace with you, which would be less awkward if it weren't for the years of servant training leaving you with the instinct to hang back. He's the farthest thing from Duke Fabre most of the time, but he's still the same level of authority that makes you nervous.

Especially when he throws out, in the most casual tone of voice, "You know, Asch isn't the only one who has a truly compelling resemblance to his father."

You don't stumble, because it takes you longer to understand what he's even _talking_ about than it does to get your balance back. You could leave Fabre Manor for an acting career without blinking and that serves you as well as it can, in the face of _that_.

"What are you talking about?" you say, with far too obvious of a delay.

Jade adjusts his glasses and slows his footsteps, forcing you to stop or walk backwards as you watch him. "I suppose you would be too young to remember," he says. He isn't smiling. "But the military facility on Hod included a fomicry lab. I had the honor of meeting Count Gardios a handful of times, though never his young family."

Shit. Shit, how did -

(The real question is how you've avoided notice this long, if you resemble your father half as strongly as Asch looks classically Kimlascan noble. You can't even remember your father's face well enough to know.)

Jade sighs lightly. "I have no intention of selling you out at this point," he says. "I simply wanted to know your objective and to be prepared for any complications that result. Though I assume you're not a threat, considering that Asch allowed you to stay."

Score, it's a good thing you've gotten practiced at talking through your knees shaking. "And what makes you think he knows?" you manage to force out, putting a bit of faked laughter into it.

"Oh, watching the way the two of you react to each other when the subject of Hod comes up makes it obvious," Jade replies, smile back in place. It's somehow less distressing to look him in the eye now that it's back, though not by much. "He didn't tell me, if that's what you're afraid of."

"I figured that," you say. "If he didn't tell Ion, there's no way in hell he'd tell you."

"True enough, I suppose." Jade shifts his weight onto his heels, sticking his hands in his pockets. "The two of them seem intent on forcing me to be proactive just to keep up with them. It's such a bother."

You don't laugh. You're finding it hard to even smile. "...Just don't tell Luke," you say, with a sinking thought in your stomach. "Just... let me be the one to tell him."

Jade shrugs at you without even removing his hands from his uniform. "It's not any business of mine whether he knows or not. I am an agent of His Majesty, and the ramifications of a survivor of Hod's nobility is my sole concern."

"Good for you," you say, without any real venom even though it feels like there should be some there. "Don't see much point, though. Hod's gone, and there's no bringing it back."

"True enough," Jade says. "But I'm sure you're aware of how interrelated the nobility can be. And Malkuth's succession crisis isn't ancient history yet."

"... What are you saying?" you ask, because there's something you aren't getting here. And while that's not unusual with Jade, you hate the feeling that he's leading you in circles around it.

"His Majesty has no heir," Jade says, and his voice is back to that quiet and serious again. "Nor, so far as most people are aware, any particularly close living relatives. None, on his father's side, with a clear claim to the throne. As for his mother's..."

You drag your thoughts through what you remember of your country's history. "She was a concubine, right?" you say. "Not the Emperor's wife."

"Correct," Jade says, "but immaterial since His Majesty has no living siblings. But if a member of her family were to appear suddenly, after His Majesty's death, and make a claim for the throne..."

You see where he's going, but you don't _understand_ it. The idea of being nobility at all is so foreign to you at this point that the idea Jade is putting in front of you slips out of your grasp like horror covered in soap.

"Are you saying that _I_ have a claim to the throne?" you say, in a choking, breathless rush.

"His Majesty's mother was your great aunt," Jade replies, unruffled, reaching up to adjust his glasses. "Did you truly not know?"

No, you didn't know. You only remember your mother's family relations as well as you did because your cousins are paraded in front of you at the Kimlascan court. The idea that you might have family in Malkuth still, nevermind the Emperor himself...

You can't process it. It's just there, taking up all your attention. 

"I can't deal with this right now," you say, and like the coward you are, you cut your losses and run.

\----

You wander the city until the repetitive sounds of the machines drown out your thoughts, stopping to watch whatever set of gears and clockwork catches your eyes. You feel like you must spend at least half an hour in front of the town crier's printing press alone, watching them churn out military acquisitions forms instead of news.

You have a claim on the throne of the Malkuth Empire. Enough of a claim that _Jade Curtiss_ was concerned about your intentions. And when you reflect on the irony, a laugh escapes you, and then another and another, as you lean against the wall of the building and feel the motion of the press inside rattle the stone.

You're tempted to go to Grand Chokmah right now and press your claim as Emperor Peony's heir, just for the looks on the _faces_ of the Kimlascans when they realize that their house servant, the one who took care of the worst and ugliest parts of raising Luke like potty training and teaching him to eat when no one else wanted to, might be sitting on the throne opposite them someday. 

But more than that, you want to scream at the heavens, out over the ocean waves in the hope that it will reach the ruins beneath the waves that you once called home - 

You have a family. And not your Kimlascan family, your mother's side, that can't recognize you even when you parade in front of their faces with a fake name only two letters off from theirs, and not Van, who was like a brother to you once but only seems to recognize family as a way to make someone into his tool, but...

A family, maybe, who might want you. A family who's refused to sell the Hod properties that you have a right to inherit, who is maybe hoping against all the evidence that there's someone to come home to them. 

It's too much. (You wonder if His Majesty's mother ever made seafood soup for him like it's supposed to be eaten, with dense knotted bread ripped off in chunks.)

You don't think you're going to cry until you're sniffling and scrubbing tears away from your eyes. It's a good thing you didn't go immediately back to the inn. The only person you could explain this to is Asch, and you're not going to rub _his_ face in it, not with his relationship with his family the way it is. There's not a damn thing you can do to repair that, and there might not be a way to repair it at all.

So, of course, when you get back to the inn long after the sun has set and your tears have dried, Asch is the only one still awake, clearly waiting up for you.

"Jade said you might not be back until late," he says, before you can ask.

"You didn't have to stay up for me," you say. 

Asch shrugs one shoulder. "I don't sleep well most of the time anyway," he says, and you can't exactly argue with that, but still. "It's not like you to go off on your own."

It's not quite, _did something happen_ , and it's not quite, _I was worried about you_ , but you can see hints of what might be either of those things in his expression, somewhere under the dour scowl and gloom. It's Asch standing between you and Tear, you and Natalia, you and every woman on the street who sees an invitation in a man being polite to her.

It's Asch, caring in his understated, closed-mouth way, reciprocating you sitting in the hangar with him when he couldn't stop his hands from shaking. Just hours ago, but it feels like days.

And this is you, remembering that even if Luke is _your_ best friend, you were _his_ , back when there was only one Luke to care about.

And so even though you don't intend to say anything, really, you wind up saying, "Did you know that Emperor Peony's mother is from my father's family?" 

"What?" Asch says, but it's like a placeholder as his brain catches up with what you've said. "You mean - "

"Jade was asking me if I had any intentions on the throne," you say. There's helpless laughter in your voice, disbelieving but not quite close to hysterical. "Because I'm His Majesty's closest living relative, I guess."

Asch's eyes widen, and even though he's silent you can practically _feel_ the plotting radiating off of him. But he doesn't voice whatever he's thinking, and instead he says, "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing right now," you say. "It's a little much, isn't it? And it wouldn't be fair to Natalia if I tried to drop everything and head to Grand Chokmah just on a maybe, when she's already this worked up about going back to Baticul."

It's easy enough to frame putting it off that way. However you feel about it doesn't matter, because you can't _do_ anything about it right now. And that in turn buys you time to figure out what you want to do, what you _will_ do, and what's smartest to do.

"His Majesty refuses to acknowledge an official successor," Asch says, tone factual but too gentle for a military report. "Forget actually getting married and having an heir - he won't leave any kind of indication whatsoever. The only reason he's getting away with it is that Mohs actively refuses to step in."

"Let me guess: Another succession crisis at the right time would be a boon to Kimlasca in the war," you say, bitterly.

Asch nods. "No point in stepping in when you're putting all your eggs in one basket," he says. "And you aren't supposed to be alive, so..."

You close your eyes briefly, and just say, "Yeah," instead of all the things you find yourself thinking. The Order has it in for Hod survivors, has almost as long as you can remember, which is why Pere took you to far-inland Saint Binah immediately in the aftermath. Asch has probably killed no small number of them with his own hands; secret clean-up operations is what Special Operations is for, you understand _that_ well enough by now.

But because Van is high enough ranked in the Order that he has some influence over that, no amount of looking for survivors would have pointed at you. You had a place of safety because of the personal attention of a man who damned more of the rest of your countrymen than you will ever _want_ to know.

"...I haven't decided if taking care of the other Hod survivors would be something I wanted to do, either," you say. "And an entire nation is... a lot more than that."

The call back to the first time you talked about your true identity with him makes Asch... Well, it wouldn't be a smile on anyone _else_ , but it's enough less of a scowl to count, on him. "A lot more," he agrees. "Well... It's your decision. I won't deny that it would be helpful in the long term, but I won't push you into it."

"Thanks," you say. "It really would change things, wouldn't it? Natalia on Kimlasca's throne, me in Malkuth, Ion in Daath... You and Luke wherever you decide to be," you add, because you don't know if either of them has really decided where they're going to be, but there's no way Asch at least won't be a major player on the political stage. And if the Kimlascans decide that Luke is somehow not worthy of their regard because of his birth, you'll take him to Malkuth with you.

"If we all manage to survive this, there might actually be peace afterwards," Asch says, something fierce and determined in his smile. "Even if you _don't_ go to Malkuth; I swear, Peony and Natalia are the only nobility who think of their countries as made up of people."

"Have you ever met him?" you ask. "I always used to hear good things, the couple of years I lived in Saint Binah before we came to Baticul, but I don't know how much of that is true."

"Just the once," Asch replies. "The whole treaty thing was actually a plot Ion and I put together - " That's probably the least surprising thing you've ever heard, in retrospect. " - but we had to make it look like it came from Malkuth, so I broke into his rooms in the middle of the night to talk to him."

Of course he did. You aren't sure that Asch knows _how_ to do anything by half measures. You can guess that that's the mission he took Tear on that you heard her so astonished about, weeks ago when Asch revealed exactly how deep and nasty the Order's plots against Malkuth run.

"I liked him," Asch continues after a moment, filling the silence you've left to get more details out of him. "Even if his reaction to seeing me was to think I was Duke Fabre's bastard."

You make a face. Asch makes a noise of agreement.

"Apparently he and Jade had a bet on it."

"I bet neither of them had money on you being his kid, but _not_ a bastard," you say. It earns you an expression like a smile and a noise like a chuckle, but neither is quite either of those things.

"They'll just have to learn to bet on the impossible next time," Asch says. "Just like the rest of us."

It's a sobering thought, to relate what you're trying to do now to the impossible. But it's a _hopeful_ thought, that the two of you are sitting here, when by all rights, either of you alone should be impossible in itself. 

And somehow, the third impossibility - that the two of you are still friends, that maybe in your case you're friends for the first time - is the truth.

"Get some sleep," you say. "There's plenty of time to work on the impossible tomorrow."

Asch rolls his eyes, and adopts a false childish tone. "I'm not your 'young master' anymore, you can't tell me what to do."

"Not like you listened then anyway," you mutter, but wave as you go to sleep. It's good to see him joke.

\----

When you get back to the room you're sharing with Luke - Class M was generous enough that you have four rooms, with enough beds for everyone, even if the way they're divided up put Anise and Jade together in the end - _he's_ sitting awake for you, too. You sigh as you come in and sit on the edge of your bed.

He and Asch really are alike at the worst of times.

"Is everything okay?" Luke asks. He's sitting crosslegged on his bed, with his hair secured in a loose sleeping braid that bears a ribbon at the bottom marking it as Anise's handiwork. You're glad she talked him into it if it means less tangles for him to complain about in the morning.

"It's..." You pause. You don't want to burden him - you never have. But Luke has grown up a lot, these last few weeks, since he left the manor and everything started happening. It makes you feel both angry at his family and inadequate, because surely even as a servant you could have been doing more to prepare him for the real world, even if you never would have imagined that his first steps into the real world would be like this.

You don't want to burden him. But maybe that's just keeping him from having the chance to grow.

You don't think you're ready to tell him everything, though. About Hod, and why you came to his manor, and why it's so unbelievable that Asch trusts you as much as he does. Not tonight.

(Maybe it isn't that you don't want to burden him. Maybe it's just that you're a coward, who doesn't want to hurt him.)

"It's okay," you say. "Jade just gave me a lot of things to think about earlier. I needed to take a walk and I lost track of time."

Luke nods, because this makes sense, and because you're not in the habit of lying to him, except about the thing that hovers over you right now like an executioner's blade.

(The worst part is, you know he'll forgive you, in the end. If Asch did, as unforgiving as he is about so many other things, then Luke will as well. As Asch justly pointed out, so many weeks ago, it's not like you ever actually _did_ anything.)

"Do you want to talk about it?" Luke asks, scooting forward to sit on the side of his bed closest to yours, feet coming forward to hang over the side. You hear a small noise of protest behind him from where Mieu must be curled up to sleep.

"I don't know," you say. "It's..." 

Maybe you can start small. 

"I don't know if anyone told you, but it was on Van's recommendation that Pere and I got jobs at the manor in the first place," you say. "Van's family was close to mine when we were really young. Before Tear was born, even. But we got separated."

"So you knew each other, before everything?"

"Yeah," you say. "He was kind of like my older brother. But he never told me anything about Asch, or any of the rest of it." 

(Kind of like what you are to Luke, except that you'll never, _never_ disregard Luke the way Van has treated you. You swear this in a quiet place in your soul, writing it on top of the faded oath of vengeance, a better oath for all involved.)

Luke's silent for a minute, but it's the kind of silence that you know he's going to break sooner rather than later. He stares at his hands, and then says quietly, voice somewhere between angry and crying, "Is there anyone I love he hasn't hurt?"

Oh. Oh, _shit_.

"Luke..." you manage to say. 

He looks up at you, and then pushes off his bed, into your arms like he's a little kid again. You hear the cut-off sound of a sob he's trying to stop, and wrap your arms around him automatically.

"I just want it to stop," Luke says into your shoulder. "I want to stop finding out about horrible things he's done all while smiling like nothing's wrong! But it's not going to stop. It feels like it's never going to stop, and I..."

A loud sniff. He squeezes you around the middle. 

"I can't do anything to make it right," he says. "If I tried to give Asch back his name and his family he'd just get _mad_ at me. And I'm not really good enough at anything to do more than just follow him around."

"Don't be stupid - " you start, but Luke isn't finished.

"And I want to go home, but I _can't_ because even though they don't hate me, my family wants me to die! Because they just... They want prosperity but they don't want to work for it! If I'm useless and lazy it's because I get it from _them_!"

"Luke..." you say again, pushing some of his hair out of your face so that you can tuck his head against your neck without getting it in your mouth. "You're not any of those things, I promise. Come on, you're only seven."

"I don't _feel_ seven," Luke says. "I still feel seventeen. And Tear and Ion are both younger than me and they're good at this, and even Anise is better than I am, and..."

"And you're still seven," you say. "And yeah, you didn't want to learn until it started to actually matter to you, but that's not all your fault. Because..."

Guilt and anger war in your stomach. They race each other up your throat. In your mouth, anger wins. 

"Because you're right, that your family didn't want to try, either," you say. Your tone is bitter. "They could have made it matter to you. They could have let you leave the manor and see normal common people like Natalia did, or slowed things down so that you could understand, and they didn't. And I'm sorry that I didn't try harder for you, either."

(Anger won, but guilt wasn't far behind. You could have done something.)

Luke sniffles. "You were the only one who looked at me and saw me," he says. "That's... It was a lot."

You can imagine. It doesn't make the guilt go entirely away, even as Luke's arms loosen around you.

You cared more about Luke than you did about Asch, but that still wasn't very much. Not enough to be deserving of this, of him crying on you and trusting you without question when the rest of his world has been rocked to its foundations. You don't deserve this any more than you do Asch's understanding look and him pointing out that you didn't really do anything to him.

Because it's true. You didn't really do anything.

(They make you want to try.)

"It was nothing," you say instead of anything you're thinking. Rote words, but you reach up and ruffle Luke's hair, the parts of it that are too short to be contained in the braid, before you release him. 

"It wasn't," he says stubbornly, but sits up away from your chest, ending up awkwardly leaning on your bed next to you. "Sorry," he says, wiping his eyes. "I shouldn't be crying all over you."

"Hey, no," you say. "I told you when you were little that you could always come cry on me if you needed to."

You don't remember if you meant it at the time. It was right after Natalia made him cry because she told him he needed to stop crying so much. Luke was... Hell, not even two at that point, now that you think about it.

Luke sniffles and scrubs at his eyes some more. "Thanks, Guy. I think I'm okay now."

You nudge him in the side with your elbow. "Think you can sleep? It's getting pretty late."

"Yeah... Yeah," Luke agrees, almost absently, letting himself be nudged in the direction of his own bed. "Sleep well, Guy."

"That's my line," you say, putting a smile on just for him as you turn out the light. You can undress in the dark just fine; once Luke's head hits the pillow, he'll probably be out cold, after crying himself out like that. "Goodnight, Luke."

There's a sleepy noise from Mieu as Luke climbs properly back into bed, but as you'd predicted, he's asleep by the time you've got your jacket off. You sigh at the bedside lamp, as though the silent witness of the dimmed light could understand your problems and would have any sympathy if it did, and climb into bed yourself.

One day at a time. You can figure out what to do with all of this later.

\----

In the morning, you rise late, by your standards. Luke, predictably, is still asleep, though Mieu lifts his eyes and cheagle-chirps at you quietly. "Good morning, Guy!"

"Morning," you say. "Tell Luke I went down to breakfast when he wakes up, alright?"

"Mieu!" the cheagle agrees, before hopping over to the pouch of grasses in Luke's things to get some breakfast himself. Works better than leaving a note. You get dressed and head down to breakfast.

Only about half the group is downstairs already. Natalia slides a cup of coffee in your direction - no cream, but it's a nice gesture anyway, so you give her a nod and a "Thanks, Natalia," as you sit down. 

(She hasn't been pushing into your personal space since Asch called her out on it, which you're grateful for. It makes it a lot easier to deal with her.)

"Are you well?" she asks. "You were out late last night... Jade told us not to worry, but I admit, I was rather concerned."

You glance at Jade, who is sipping his own coffee and distinctly not looking at you, before turning your smile on Natalia. "It's alright," you say. "I just had some things I needed to work out."

Natalia raises her eyebrows, but she's too polite to question you further. She's pretty good at politics, she knows a dodge when she sees one, and you've never been important enough to her that she really pushes you on most things. She'll let you be.

You turn towards Ion instead, where he's quietly munching on some toast. (Ion's breakfast begins, religiously, with a piece of toast with just butter on it, even on the road, though it's usually more like buttered bread in that instance than toast.)

"Good morning," he says after swallowing a bite. He seems to be savoring it. "Was there something you needed, Guy?"

"I mentioned to Class M that you'd been helping out with the fontech on board the ship," you say, "and they were wondering if you'd be willing to take a look at the damaged flightstone? Since Daath has most of the information on Dawn Age relics and all."

"Oh!" Ion says brightly. "I'd be happy to, though I don't know how much help I'd be... Tear, would you be willing to come along?"

Tear makes a sound of acknowledgement into her own toast, swallows, and says, "If you'd like, Fon Master."

"I would appreciate it," Ion says. "We can go once the others are awake, if that's alright?" he says, turning back to you.

"That's fine," you say. "I think they'll be more anxious to talk to Jade, anyway. They were going over his notes last night."

Ion nods. "Figuring out what Van intends to do has to take priority," he agrees. "I hope that Dist's research notes are able to point us in the right direction."

"While you do that," Natalia says, "I'll take my cousins and Anise and see about getting the ship resupplied."

"Just let Anise do the talking," Ion suggests. "She has more experience bartering than any of you three, I'm afraid."

"Oh, I've noticed," Natalia says. "Luke's rather hopeless at haggling, of course, but Anise is truly on another level."

Probably because she's been poor enough that the haggling really matters, but you won't say that to Natalia's face. It's not something she or Ion could really understand. They're not as spoiled as Luke, but money, at least, is something they've never had to struggle with.

"Speaking of Anise," Tear says, with a glance towards the stairs. 

You turn in time to see the girl give a bright and beaming "Good morning, everyone!" that practically sparkles before she launches herself at the chair next to Ion. Tear almost catches your eye as she sighs quietly into her tea, and you give her a 'what can you do' shrug before adding cream to your coffee and settling back to drink it. One day at a time.

\----

When you get to the labs, Tamara and Jade immediately put their heads together over Dist's notes, leaving you and Ion to Iemon and Aston, who has the broken flightstone taken out of its casing on the work table. Ion approaches it with some curiosity. 

"It's cracked here," Iemon says, drawing Ion's eyes to the spot by pointing. "It seems like the damage should be superficial, doesn't it? But it won't work anymore."

Ion hums, leaning in close to get a better look at the flightstone - as small as he is, it almost seems like someone should be getting him a stepstool so he can look at it properly. "I don't know terribly much about the inner workings of Dawn Age technology myself," he admits, "but from my understanding, patterns like this channel fonons similarly to the circuits in modern fontech."

"So the circuit's broken?" Aston says. "That seems like it would be an easy fix, if only we knew more about it."

"I wish I could be of more help," Ion says. "Tear, would you come take a look at it?"

"I don't know that much about it myself," she says, "but I can try." She comes up between Ion and the table as he steps back, letting her in where she can see clearly.

You're wondering why he brought her along at all. As far as you've seen, Tear doesn't have much inclination towards interest in fontech. But as you watch, she glances nervously at Ion, and then points out one part of the carving in particular. "Here," she says. "That's a Third Fonon circuit that's broken. You could probably repair it with an electrical conductor of some sort and it might work."

"Really?" Iemon says, but before she has the chance to respond, he turns and yells at where Tamara and Jade are working, "Tamara! Bring that spool of copper down here, the young lady thinks she can get this thing floating again!"

"I can't make any promises," Tear attempts to hedge, but Class M descends on her with enthusiasm and several gauges of wire anyway, laying it carefully across the gaps in the carving. You find yourself on fetch duty, handing them pliers and fetching solder from a shelf at the back of the room as Jade looks on with his expression hidden behind his glasses.

There turns out to be a broken Sixth Fonon circuit as well, so you get sent to the actual storehouse across the street to request a chunk of light transmission cable, a bundle of glass fibers that's worth probably more than your year's salary at Fabre Manor. You run there and walk back _extremely slowly_ with your precious cargo, barely able to contain yourself.

When you return, Tamara says, "Get up here, you don't have to be that gentle with it," and you still find it hard to obey. By this point there's a strange network of wires and solder growing on the side of the flightstone like a fungus of ingenuity, to which Tamara and Aston begin adding your contribution eagerly. Tear and Ion have stepped back out of the immediate engineering radius, and you join them, watching from across the table.

"I didn't realize you knew so much about Dawn Age technology!" you say to Tear. "Can you teach me? Does everyone in the Order learn this?"

Because you would seriously consider joining up if they teach this, even as much resentment as you have towards the Score. As much resentment as you currently have towards the Order's policy of refusing to provide information on Dawn Age relics, which it looks like Ion has just singlehandedly reversed in the last hour?

Tear doesn't answer you, not really. She just says, "It's not my place to say," which is the most transparent dodge you've ever seen in your _life_.

You frown. You glance at Ion, but he shakes his head very slightly, so, you let it go, and turn your attention back to the three engineers clustered around the flightstone instead. And seemingly just in time - there's a spark of white light, and the flightstone flickers with a glow over all of its inlays, light green, for just a moment. It's not _working_ , but it's not a dead relic, either.

Iemon hoots. "Look at this! It'll take more trial and error, but that's more than we've gotten out of it since the crash!"

Tamara's excitement is more restrained, but she still grins. "Thank you, Fon Master, Sergeant Grants. You've saved us an incredible amount of time in the process of getting the Albiore II off the ground, even if it doesn't look like it."

"At this rate, we might be able to have it flying by the time you next return," Aston says, wiping his brow on the back of one arm. He's been the one working with the soldering iron, so no wonder he's sweating. "It's just trial and error from here, now that we've gotten her to light up again. You're headed off to investigate Ortion Cavern next, aren't you?"

"That's correct," Jade says from behind you. You spook a little (less than you would have if he were a woman) and slide to the side. "With luck, we should return within a week - ten days, at the most."

"Bring us back some fonamin if you can!" Iemon says. "Belkend's researchers have had a monopoly on the stuff for the last two years - it's not _only_ useful for fomicry research, don't they realize that?"

"We'll see what we can do," Ion says. "Jade?"

"I see no reason to stand around and interfere with their progress," Jade says. "Fontech is hardly my specialty, and Dist's notes on fomicry wouldn't make much sense to anyone other than myself or perhaps Asch. I can take those with us and leave the rest."

"Then let's get out of their way," Ion agrees. "The others should still be at the market."

\----

Only Asch doesn't look especially surprised at the news that Tear was even more valuable to repairing the flightstone than Ion was, which increases your suspicion of the whole thing by another notch. Well, if he didn't feel the need to drag it out in front of everyone the way he did Anise's connection to Mohs, he must not be that concerned about it. You can trust his judgement that far.

Instead, you let yourself be recruited into going to the wilds outside town to help hunt down a few monster bounties for enough gald to fill the ship's hold, leaving Anise to Jade and Ion's supervision while the rest of you earn money. With Kimlasca taking most of the guard off to war, there's more monsters around than usual, and you're able to make up the difference before the sun sets too far below the horizon. Luke's getting a lot better with practice, enough that you no longer feel like you need to keep one eye on him at all times.

You troop back into the city sore but with full pockets, pick up your grocery orders, and head back to the inn to leave first thing in the morning. Between the fighting and your poor rest the night before, you retire early and fall asleep almost immediately.

After breakfast, you all pack yourselves into the bridge of the ship. It's only designed to hold three people, so it becomes a bit of a squeeze with eight and a cheagle. Asch keeps himself between you and the others, as usual, letting you wedge yourself between him and an instrument panel where you won't brush up against the girls by accident.

"Our itinerary is the Sephirot at Meggiora first," Jade says, "followed by Ortion Cavern. That way, we'll have room for any fonamin specimens we might find, which could result in this being a rather profitable exploration if we're lucky."

Nods, around the group. Jade hums. "No questions? It's unlike you all to accept my authority so easily."

"Well, it only makes sense!" Anise says. "More fonamin in the hold means more profit, and it's not like there's anything we can sell at the Sephirot, right?" She glances at Ion. 

Ion considers. "Well, it's unlikely," he says at length. 

Jade adjusts his glasses. "Of course," he says, feigning hurt. "You weren't listening to me, you were just being _sensible_. My authority continues to mean nothing."

"Not a thing," Asch agrees. "Guy, you're furthest from the door, so you're on shift with us. Everyone else, dismissed."

As though it was planned, Luke and Anise catch each other's eyes and both give Asch salutes (they're _different_ salutes, but it's the thought that counts) and bark, "Yes, sir!" before the group scatters. Jade just sighs into his command console and starts cleaning his glasses.

\----

Actually getting to Meggiora's Sephirot involves carefully dodging around the edge of a whirlpool formed at the river's mouth - ironically, your smaller ship serves better than a larger one such as the Tartarus would have, better able to cling to the edges of the coast outside of the worst of the pull. Between that and carefully timing the slack tide, you're able to sail past without too much trouble.

The Sephirot itself is far enough inland that you pack supplies for an overnight stay and secure the ship. You also travel by night, which seems like an invitation to get attacked by monsters, but as Tear points out, there's enough of your group that's nonfunctional in the mornings that it's not worth trying to make the trip in the pre-dawn light. Ion says that the Sephirot itself stays fairly cool during the day.

You don't like the fact that he had to sleep there with no one but Van looking out for him, but apparently wild monsters don't usually enter the Passage Rings, either.

"Or at least," he amends, "the wards are supposed to repel monsters and wildlife. Whether or not that's still the case..."

So you cross a chunk of wild desert in the middle of the night, as rested as you can be at the end of the day, and aside from a couple encounters with monsters, it's fine. The most shocking thing, maybe, is that Ion refuses to stand back and simply _be protected_ anymore. He's a fonist and an opportunist, but that doesn't mean that you're not all shocked when he just _punches_ a boar in the head as it's held at bay by Asch's sword.

Asch just sighs heavily. "Sync's rubbing off on you," he tells the Fon Master.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Ion says, rubbing his knuckles, which are scratched from where he collapsed the boar's sinuses into its skull. Anise grabs his hand and starts fussing immediately. "Really, Anise, it's not that bad..."

"I can't believe you," she says. "Where did you even _learn_ to throw a proper punch? Asch - "

"I had nothing to do with this," Asch protests in deadpan. 

Anise _hmph_ s disbelievingly. Behind her back, you catch Luke giving Asch a sheepish look and rubbing the back of his neck the way he used to do as a kid when the guards caught him trying to sneak out. 

_Really_? When did he even have time to teach Ion something like that?

"Well, it's good that the Fon Master can defend himself without having to resort to Daathic Artes," you say, to cut the tension. 

Ion nods, looking at you as much as he can with the angle Anise is holding his hand at. (She kicks him in the ankle when he tries to tug away before she's finished.) "My stamina is a little better than it used to be," he says. "I don't think I'll ever be _strong_ , but... I don't want to be a burden, either."

Anise pauses, just long enough that Natalia sighs and says, "Really, Anise, you should let the actual healers look," and steps in between them to look at Ion's hand herself.

Jade says, "Well. If that's what you want, I can take a better look at you later. It's not my specialty, but I might be able to figure out a way for you to train safely without pushing yourself _too_ hard."

Ion smiles. "I'd appreciate it," he says.

"There," Natalia says. "Though if you're going to insist on taking things into your own hands like this, Fon Master, might I suggest something to protect your knuckles next time?"

Ion laughs lightly. "I'll look into some gloves," he agrees. "Thank you."

"Hey," Luke says, nudging the boar with his foot. "Is this thing edible?"

Asch sighs heavily, and goes to teach his replica the basics of stringing up game, because apparently that's their relationship now. It's a good thing you have all night.

\----

Weighted down by the best cuts of meat from the boar - no point in taking more fresh meat than you can eat when it'll spoil so quickly in the day's heat - and supplies for a fire to cook it, you almost don't recognize the opening of the Sephirot when Ion gestures you all inside. Without the seal on it, there's nothing setting it apart from the numerous shallow highland caves except for its distinct archway shape.

Inside is nothing like you expected. The entryway doesn't even look like the same kind of stone as the outside, though you're sure it has to be. Ion herds you all onto the lift platform that occupies most of the room, and you descend.

As you go deeper, the fonons become obvious even to you, and so does Asch's nervousness.

"We're just here to look around, right?" you say into the silence.

"Right," Ion says. "And to be sure that Van didn't tamper with it further after I unlocked it. Akzeriuth is still sealed, so the Albertesque seal should still be in place."

And on that note, the Sephirot cavern opens up around you. You hear Natalia gasp, and Luke mutters, "Oh, wow."

It truly is beautiful. Fonons and memory particles fill the air, rising in a current in the center of a massive array of fon machines. Emphasis on _array_ \- the barriers are similar to the one you encountered on the inside of Mount Roneal, but much more extensive, forming large floors (some of them set up out of reach of the paths, for no reason you can gather) and walkways as well as walls. You can't manage to really take all of it in by the time the elevator comes to a stop.

Ion leads the way off the platform, Asch and Jade at his heels, and the rest of you following. You think that a pathway made of glyphs and energy shouldn't clink as distinctly under Jade's heeled boots as it does.

A few yards onto the pathway, Ion comes to a stop as a barrier forms in front of him, just before the pathway opens up into the wide circle that surrounds the main part of the Passage Ring. Jade hums. "Which seal is this?"

"The Albertesque, according to Van," Ion replies. "The Yulian seal must be beyond."

"Three layers of security," Jade says, lowering his glasses as though peering over the tops of them. He steps forward himself and places a hand against the barrier, which flickers and buzzes unsettlingly against his fingers. "Hmm. Based on the structure, I believe it's a keyed barrier - on with some sort of physical object that unlocks it." Another hum, and Jade withdraws his hand to fling a dart of fonons at the barrier. They scatter over it in a burst like a firework.

"That kind of thing would be kept in Daath, wouldn't it?" Anise says. "Ion? Can you think of anything like that?"

Ion shakes his head. "I'm afraid not. And it's possible that the key would have been on Hod, or... in some other place we can't access now."

"I've never heard of anything that might be such a relic, either," Tear says. 

"It's very possible that such an object was intended to be lost," Jade says, shrugging before he steps away from the boundary formed by the barrier. "Unfortunately, I can't be certain as to whether bringing that item to each barrier individually would serve, or if one would have to lower the seal entirely at Akzeriuth. We'll have to hope for the latter."

"You think Van knows what it is?" you ask. 

"He didn't seem all that worried about it up to this point," Ion says. "Either he has knowledge of the key - assuming that it isn't already in his possession - or he doesn't think it matters."

"I suppose some information is better than none," Natalia says. "But, Jade, how do you know what sort of barrier it is?"

Jade smiles, and reaches up to tap the frame of his glasses. "I developed an arte when I was younger that allows me to see much more detail in the flow of fonons than most people can," he says. "It's quite dangerous to my vision if overused, but it's enough to draw a few conclusions. Barriers like this are rare, but the 'key,' if you will, is inscribed with a section of glyph that's missing from the seal itself. Combining the two will dispel it."

"Then, couldn't someone make another key?" Luke asks.

"Hypothetically," Jade says, "but it would require an inhuman amount of trial and error, and you're more likely to blow yourself up trying. Even with my experience, I've never seen a glyph this complicated."

Luke sighs. "Yeah, figures," he mutters.

Asch has a hand against his chin, seemingly deep in thought. As Jade walks away from the barrier, Ion steps over to Asch, just short of touching him. "Asch? What are you thinking?"

"Just considering the kind of item that it could be," he replies. "Nothing particularly useful."

Ion watches him for a minute, but doesn't press. "We should probably go back outside to build a fire for the meat," he says instead. 

"Right," Asch agrees. "Let's do that before it gets too hot, then."

\----

It does get hot. It's warm already by the time you're done cooking the boar meat, and the sun is only barely risen. Sheridan is kept cooler by the constant ocean breeze; the inland highlands have no such moderating influence. You're glad to return inside afterwards and catch a couple hours of nap in the too-bright environment of the Passage Ring proper.

When you wake up, it's to hearing Ion telling some of the others, in a low voice, about his hypothesis regarding the harsh light of the sun outside charging this particular Passage Ring with the Sixth Fonon. You stretch quietly as they continue to talk, already missing the sad excuses for mattresses on board the ship.

"It makes it really hard to tell what time it is from the inside," Luke says. "Do you guys have any idea?"

"It's about sunset, if my estimation is right," Asch says. "Still hot, but the temperature will drop soon."

"Good," Luke says. "It's really beautiful in here, but it doesn't really... do anything, does it?"

"It's one of the planet's fon slots," Tear says. "Natural energy flows and gathers here, the same way your body gathers energy in your hands or your eyes."

"But the question," Jade says, and you can hear the tone in his voice that says that he knows he's edging in on blasphemy and is doing so intentionally, "is whether Yulia put the Passage Rings where they are because they were already the planet's fon slots, or whether they became such because of the Passage Rings."

"I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that," Tear says evenly. "There's few records remaining from before Yulia's time."

Sounds like the Daath party line if you've ever heard it, and from the dark expression Asch isn't even especially trying to hide, he's thinking the same thing.

"Morning, guys," you say, making your way to sit with the rest of the group. "Was I the last one awake?"

"Asch hasn't slept," Ion says, and his expression is - for him - downright sour.

"It's fine," Asch says. No wonder he looks less pleasant than usual. "I'll sleep on the ship."

Ion and Natalia both sigh heavily. 

"Mieu's still napping," Luke says, breaking the tension. "But I can just carry him and he'll be fine."

"Then the sooner we get back, the sooner you guys can stop looking at Asch like that," you say. "Think it's cool enough outside to get going?"

"May as well," Jade says. "I'm certainly impatient to be gone."

\----

It's still hot out, with about half an hour of daylight left, but once the sun sets, the desert cools rapidly. You're chilly by the time you get back to the ship. As expected, Natalia immediately herds Asch to his cabin, over his protests. You and Jade navigate the ship back down the river and out across the stilled tidal currents the way you came in.

From there, it's another day and a half's journey south to Ortion Cavern. At least there, there's a proper dock for the ship.

"Be on your guard," Asch says. "There might actually be people here."

You all nod, and try to move quietly, but in spite of his warnings, you don't encounter any living humans, only cave monsters and your own distorted reflections. Finally, far at the back of the cave, you find what definitely looks to be a research lab of some sort.

"Looks like we hit the jackpot," Anise says.

Asch glances around and says, "Jade and I will handle the computer. Everyone else, split up and see if you find anything interesting. _Don't touch anything_."

You stick close to Luke and Natalia as they make their way to the back of the lab. "Is it just me," Natalia says in a whisper, "or is Asch a bit sharper than usual?"

"It's a fomicry lab, isn't it?" Luke whispers back. "He's probably not having a good time."

Natalia sighs. "I suppose you're right," she says. "That must be why he's not sleeping well. I found him up late last night, too."

"Can't really blame him," you agree. "He already has really bad nightmares - "

"Hey guys!" Anise's voice rings throughout the cavern, interrupting you. "Over here! There's a cheagle in a cage!"

Mieu's ears perk up where he's settled on Luke's shoulder, and he jumps down and bolts in that direction with surprising speed for a creature of his size. By the time you catch up, he's already talking to the cheagle behind bars, squeaking furiously. It has orange fur and looks like it's seen better days.

Ion, standing next to Anise, is staring into the bars of the second cage. There's another cheagle curled up there, identical to the one Mieu is talking to, but it looks even worse, and it's not moving at all.

From the faint smell of rotting meat when you approach more closely, it hasn't moved in a while. You grimace. "Test subjects?" you ask.

Ion nods, pointing at the labels above the cages. They're too faded to read. "Abandoned once they served their purpose, it seems." There's a bitter, angry note in his voice.

Luke looks pissed, and bends down next to the still-living cheagle. "Mieu? What does he have to say?"

There's a bit more squeaking, and then Mieu rubs his front paws over his ears. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to me," he says. "But we need to get him out of here."

"Right," Luke says. "Uh, how do we - "

"Oh, scoot over," Anise says. She starts pulling something out of her belt pouch - are those lockpicks? "You nobles are really useless."

Luke immediately steps out of her way, taking a step back to frown instead at the dead cheagle in the other cage. "...Huh. You'd think the original would be the stronger one, wouldn't you?"

"How do you know that's the original?" Natalia asks. 

"Oh, uh..." Luke rubs the back of his head, looking incredibly uncomfortable for a minute. "Asch said once that I wouldn't leave behind a body when I died."

Well. That's not unsettling or anything. It gets worse when Jade, entirely typically, says from behind you, "That's correct."

"Q-quit doing that!" Luke says. The orange cheagle is spooked enough to emit a small ball of flame, though it doesn't reach much beyond the bars. (No doubt it's too weak for much of anything at the moment.)

"Replicas are made of pure fonons, which disperse when they die," Jade continues, as though no one said anything. He adjusts his glasses and turns his gaze to the cheagles. "And it's not uncommon at all for the extraction of replica data to severely weaken the original. Truthfully, Asch is miraculously lucky."

Luke's eyes drift over to the dead cheagle. "So wait, are you saying that he might..."

"At this point, it's incredibly unlikely," Jade says. "Not impossible, but such weakness usually became apparent within a week or two at most, and only a few of the experimental replicas lived much longer than that."

Natalia sighs. "Thank goodness," she says. "I can't imagine how he would handle it if he suddenly weakened now, after everything."

"Can you guys be quiet for a minute?" Anise mutters. "I'm trying to concentrate, here."

"Sorry," Luke says, and that's the last anyone says for a few minutes, until Anise drops one of her lockpicks to the floor with a _clink_ and pops the lock open with her freed hand. The cheagle noses its way out of the cage nervously, still looking weak, and then immediately begins another squeaked conference with Mieu.

"But if that's the replica, how can it communicate?" Natalia asks over the sound of quiet squeaking. "Luke couldn't speak for months, and not well enough to hold a conversation for over a year."

"We'll have to ask on the ship, once it's recovered a bit," Jade says. "Asch and Tear are extracting the data from the computation system, so if there's nothing else, we have what we came for."

"What did you find?" Ion asks.

"Mostly, research data on large-scale fomicry applications, which aligns with your reports of Van's intended goals," Jade says. "Though it appears this facility has been abandoned for several months, aside from the mining operations, they had already reached the ability to replicate a tenth of Auldrant's surface."

"A tenth of the planet?!" Anise says. "That's so much!"

Luke leans down, offering his hand for the orange cheagle to sniff, before scooping up both it and Mieu and allowing them to cling to his shoulders. "All alone for that long..." he says, looking at the orange cheagle, who has apparently been convinced that he's trustworthy.

Jade adjusts his glasses and turns, just barely, in your direction, though it's subtle enough that someone could mistake it for him just getting out of the way of Luke's progress. "In addition, there was replica data from the research on Hod," he says. "I believed that data destroyed after the war, but it appears Dist made off with a copy."

You very carefully don't react, even though you want to shiver.

"If that's it, then let's get out of here," Luke says. 

"Agreed," Natalia says. The large group moves over to where Asch and Tear are still in front of the computer, Tear standing back as Asch fights with something underneath the screen.

"That should do it," he says. "I'm sure this was probably just a backup, but anything I can do to make Van's life more difficult..."

"As long as you got a copy of the data for us to analyze first," Jade says. 

Tear holds up a piece of machinery and a stack of fon disks in response. "This should be everything," she says. "Is... Did you find a cheagle down _here_?"

"A test subject, we're pretty sure," you say. Maybe it would be better to not tell her about the dead one, given how her face lights up. It's kind of cute the way she's just barely keeping herself from gushing - you suppose even if she's a soldier, she's a teenage girl once in a while.

"Oh..." Tear says, with a glance at Asch. "Well, we certainly can't leave it here. Let's go."

\----

The orange cheagle - who Luke names Star, on the basis that humans can't be expected to tell the two slightly different intonations of 'Mieu' apart - descends on your supply of dry grass with the fervor of the starving, and then immediately curls up to sleep. For the rest of you, it's a quiet journey back to Sheridan.

The port is quiet, when you pull into it. You dismiss the part of your brain that says it's too quiet, because it's barely after dawn and mist still hangs in the air, the only moisture that the town will see that isn't pumped from deep wells for a season or more.

Ten minutes after you've gotten off the ship, you're swearing to yourself that you're never going to ignore your instincts again. 

Kimlascan soldiers, suddenly blocking off the street at the corner. "Halt!" the one in front orders. "You're under arrest for the kidnapping of Her Highness the Princess Natalia!" 

You're not sure who among you this is addressed to, but Natalia immediately perks up. "I was _not_ kidnapped!" she counters, voice ringing with authority. "I chose to join the expedition of my own free will."

"Then, with all due respect, why is it that the party never made it to Akzeriuth?" the officer responds, looking your group over. (Even under his helmet, you see the moment he sees Asch and Luke side by side, because his shoulders jerk with a doubletake.)

You hear more footsteps behind you, clanking with the sound of armor. Surrounded. You could probably scale the side of a building fast enough to get away, by yourself, but the majority of the others can't.

"Further information has revealed that Van Grants was planning to assassinate my cousin," Natalia says, "under the cover of an accident in the mines. We elected to divert west and have been conducting our own discreet investigation since then."

"I see," the officer says. "In that case, surely you and Young Master Luke would be willing to accompany us back to Baticul? If this is all a matter of miscommunication, then surely you're willing to return to set things to rights."

"Of course," Natalia says, transparently looking at Luke. You didn't realize she was this good of a liar, at least when it comes to coming up with something off the cuff. "But I must ask that you release Colonel Curtiss and the Fon Master's party; they have been protecting us, and I'm certain that the Colonel needs to return to Grand Chokmah to update His Imperial Majesty on the situation just as badly."

The officer hesitates, but then nods, turning to Jade. "It is outside my rank to make a claim of immediate ceasefire," he says, "but I hope that His Majesty will be forgiving in this matter."

"Of course," Jade replies. "I'll bear word to Grand Chokmah immediately. Fon Master, would you do me the pleasure of your company?"

"Of course," Ion replies. He turns to Luke. "Please be safe," he says. "We'll see each other soon, okay?"

Luke isn't nearly as good of a liar as the rest of you. He's pale, but nods at Ion's words and seems to relax slightly. "Yeah, I've had enough of this hiding nonsense," he says, faking being as spoiled as ever. "Come on, Guy, Natalia, let's go home."

You nod, deliberately not glancing at Asch as you let yourself be led back down to the harbor by the main group of soldiers. Lorelei, but you hope this doesn't all go to hell.

\----

The quarters on board the Kimlascan ship are designed for military officers, which means that they're still cramped but they're private enough that the three of you can have a conversation. You quarter yourself in with Luke, who gets the idea quickly enough to whine that he doesn't want to be separated from his servant. Both of you are intimately aware that you're more like a bodyguard right now.

Natalia slides her way in after you're about an hour underway, and closes the door behind her. "We can go freely between our rooms," she says, "but there are guards on the hallway. For our protection, no doubt."

"Are you really sure this was the best idea?" Luke says, looking nervous.

"With me along, they at least won't take you anywhere but directly back to Baticul," Natalia says. "Or... at least, I hope that's the case."

"You can't get to Akzeriuth except through the Kaitzur port," you say. "With the war so close to that, I doubt they'd risk Natalia there."

Luke scrubs at the side of his head, running his fingers through the hair over his ear. "...They'll come after us, right?" he asks, voice more vulnerable than you've heard it in years.

"Oh, Luke," Natalia says, and she sits on the narrow bed next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "Before we know it."

"It's just..." Luke presses the heels of his hands into his face. "It's the first time I've ever been good enough, you know? And going back to Baticul..."

"I'm sorry," Natalia says. There's guilt all over her face, and you see her squeeze Luke's shoulder.

"It's not your fault," Luke says. "You just believed what you were told and did what the adults did."

"But, I still should have - " Natalia starts, and you cut her off.

"We both made mistakes," you say. "But we were just kids. When you learned better, you changed how you acted, didn't you?"

Natalia doesn't answer, but Luke elbows her. "He's right, you know," he says. "You're a lot more tolerable now."

Natalia huffs. "Tolerable? Really. Your manners still need work."

"See, that's why you're just tolerable," Luke replies.

"Not exactly my point," you say. "Just - do you think Duke Fabre will change how he acts towards Luke so easily, when he finds out?"

(Because he'll find out eventually. It's only because Van kept Asch so far from Baticul that the secret lasted this long. With Kimlasca in the pocket of the main faction in the Order, though, that won't last. With Asch moving so openly at Ion's side, it won't last.)

(You hope he's thought about that.)

"...No," Natalia says quietly. The admission is clearly pained. "No, I can't imagine him accepting it so easily, nor Father."

It's not quite what you asked, but you nod. "It's harder for adults to change," you say. "To admit that they have to change. I'm not even that old and it's hard for me."

"What's going to happen when they find out?" Luke says. 

"I don't know," you admit. "But we're not going to abandon you. I promise."

At least that seems to cheer him up a little.

\----

It's two and a half days into Baticul, your ship arriving late in the evening. Even if they left immediately after you, it will be at least another day and a half until your group, in their smaller, slower ship, can catch up.

You just have to keep it together for two days. Surely that can't be that difficult.

The three of you are together escorted to the castle by soldiers, and kept away from the crowds; Luke attempts to appeal to be taken to the manor instead, but even if Natalia hadn't quietly shushed him with a whispered, "We should stay together," the guards don't respond to him.

So the three of you are marched into the throne room of the castle, Natalia leading without ever letting go of Luke's hand, and you standing right behind him, closer than is appropriate for a servant, as close to Natalia as you can bear.

You know things are going to be bad the minute the doors swing open and Mohs is standing beside Ingobert's throne, a disgustingly smug expression on his face.

"And there are the imposters, along with their accomplice," he says. "What do you have to say for yourselves, pretenders to the throne?"

"I - what?" Natalia gasps. "Imposters? What is the meaning of this?"

She manages to not emphasize the plural, but you swear you hear it that way anyway. Against Natalia, the accusation is nonsense, but against Luke, it's unfortunately true.

Mohs _sneers_. "A false princess and a replica created to replace the next in line. Don't bother to deny it; we have plenty of evidence against you."

"What are you _talking_ about?" Natalia says, voice cracking, as she turns from Mohs towards the throne. "Father, please, what is going on?"

Ingobert looks conflicted, but he doesn't offer his daughter any reassurance. His eyes are cold as he says, "We have been given troubling reports that my true daughter was stillborn, and you put in her place. The testimony is accurate, so far as we have used it to successfully locate an infant's corpse, buried in secret on the castle grounds."

"What?!" Luke says. "That's - even if that were the case, isn't she still your daughter? Hasn't she been your daughter for nineteen years?"

Neither Natalia nor Ingobert says anything. _Mohs_ , who is rapidly challenging Duke Fabre for position as your least favorite person in the world, says, "Silence, replica. You and the agent placed to maintain the deception - " His eyes cast over you. You don't give him the satisfaction of seeing your expression change an inch. " - are even more guilty than the false princess. A conspiracy of Hod survivors to take their revenge, isn't it? Why else would you insert yourself into Duke Fabre's household?"

Your stomach drops out. It's true, it's damning, and you're far more concerned with the way Luke freezes up than you are with responding to the accusations. Any thought of doing so is driven out of your mind. You know that's exactly why Mohs did it, said it so publicly, but all you can think about is - 

Van was the only one who knew, outside of Pere (and oh, Lorelei, Pere, if he dies because of this - ). 

In order for Mohs to have this information, Van must have betrayed you. And that is the thing that destroys your will and stills your tongue.

"Father," Natalia manages to wheeze out, " _please_..."

"You will be given a fair trial and hearing," Ingobert says. "If you admit to your guilt, and provide us with the whereabouts of the true Luke, you will be granted some mercy."

 _No reason to bother with that_ , you think. _He's on his way right now, ready to tear you a new one._

Guards close in around you. You ignore the way it makes your knees want to buckle (you're sick with fear anyway, what's one more thing?) and reach forward to seize Luke's wrist, just above where Natalia's hand is still clutched in his.

"Escort them away," King Ingobert orders. He looks the three of you over, and the cold in his expression is a little less as he adds, "They may remain together, for now."

It's your only blessing.

\----

You're not taken to the cells, which might be a blessing or might not be. You're stripped of your weapons, but the three of you are allowed to remain together in the sparsely appointed rooms usually given to visiting commoners of too much status to be completely ignored. You guess they're probably the plainest rooms in the castle.

(If you recall correctly, actually, this might have been Tear's room, the last time you were in Baticul.)

Natalia clings to Luke's right side, and he keeps his arm around her waist. You wedge yourself in against his other side, and his hand winds up in yours. You grip it as tightly as you dare, the both of you silent until Natalia has cried herself out.

Finally, when her sobbing has subsided, Luke says, "So, that's probably the worst that could have gone."

"We could be dead," you point out, and like Luke's, your words fall short of finding any light in the situation. They try their best, but climbing a cliff barehanded is just going to give you bloody fingers.

Natalia sniffs loudly, and then says, "I can't believe... I thought I would be able to fix things by coming back to Baticul, but I've only made everything worse."

" _You_ didn't do anything," Luke says. "It was obviously Mohs. Did you see the look on his face? He's always been the one that wanted the war, of course he had a plan to stop us from stopping it."

Neither of you can argue with that, really. Mohs has built a conspiracy on a bunch of technical truths that's hard to argue with.

After some silence, Natalia says, "Guy? ...Is it true?"

You wish that you could play dumb. But it would be obvious at this point. You look out the window - but you're sure the castle grounds are swarming with guards, already prepared for you to try to escape that way.

"...Yeah," you admit finally, and don't say anything more.

Luke jerks sharply, his shoulder away from yours, but he doesn't let go of your hand. "Which _part_?" he demands.

"...All of it?" you answer. You release his fingers before he has the chance to pull away, standing up to go sit on the armchair a few feet away from them. (You don't think you'd be able to stand it, feeling him pull away from you in disgust.) "Except for the part about being a plant to watch over Luke after he was replaced, obviously. I didn't know anything about Asch or... any of that."

"So you really..." Luke looks destroyed. (The bitter, aching part of you wonders if that's the same face Asch made, when Van told him. It wouldn't make sense for it to be - normally their expressions are completely different - but somehow you can imagine it.)

Natalia takes a deep breath, and looks you in the eyes. "You would have only been a small child when the Hod War happened," she says, calmly and carefully. She's trying to wrap herself in as much of her princesshood as she's been allowed to retain. "Please, explain."

(She's a better ruler than Ingobert will ever be. At least she's willing to try to hear you out.)

You breathe in. Breathe out. You say, "On my fifth birthday, Duke Fabre led Kimlascan soldiers to my house, and killed my entire family."

Natalia gasps, covering her mouth with her hands, and you see that she knows. That she's studied the history enough to know that there's only one entire family that was wiped out then. You look away. Somehow her knowledge hurts just as much as Luke's innocence.

(You wonder, suddenly, if Peony's mother was there. You've never thought to look too closely at the names of those who died. They were your family, and that's all you needed to know.)

"Not just my family," you say. "But all of our servants, too. They must have been killed in front of my eyes, but I don't remember a thing. The last thing I remember is my mother putting me in my sister's arms and telling us to hide, and then it's black until I wake up on a boat with Pere and a dozen or so other refugees."

You would probably have starved to death on that boat anyway, if it wasn't for the way Hod fell. The massive wave that caused so much destruction on coastlines around the world was also your salvation, washing that boat to Malkuth's shores faster than it would have been able to travel otherwise. At least, that's what Pere told you later on.

"Guy..." Luke says. "I'm so sorry."

"So, as you might expect, I was a pretty angry kid growing up," you say. "I hated everything to do with Kimlasca, House Fabre especially. When Van said that he could get me in at the manor as a servant, of course I didn't say no. It was the only chance I would have to get close enough to take my revenge.

"To kill Duke Fabre's son. That's why I came to Baticul. Not to kill the man who killed my family, but to make him hurt the way I did."

They're quiet. You risk a glance at them, and Natalia has her hand wrapped around Luke's. They're both looking at that, instead of at you.

"...Does Asch know?" Natalia finally asks, without looking up.

"Van told him," you say, and you let all of the bitterness you have about _that_ , all of the anger you have towards Van right now, out. "What better way to ensure that he'd never come back here? Oh, it's not even just that your family wants to sacrifice you to the Score, but your best friend wants to kill you, too!"

Luke flinches, just a little. You should reassure him, but you can't. You're stuck somewhere between laughing and crying, tears threatening on your cheeks and an uncontrollable smile in your voice.

"And even after all that, he forgave me, just like that," you say. "Said that it didn't matter because I never actually _tried_ to kill him. What the hell am I supposed to do with that? At least hate me a little, you know?"

It would be easier if they hated you, even a little. Any of them. You'd know what to do with that.

You don't know what to do with the way Luke finally looks up, looks at you, and says, "Isn't he right, though? If you wanted to kill me..."

You sigh heavily, and semiconsciously rub the back of your head, automatically trying to bring the mood up. "You guys are too much alike," you say.

"Oh, shut up," Luke says.

Natalia sucks in a breath. "But if that's true as well," she starts, and stops to wipe her eyes. "Then does that mean..."

You bite your lip. You can't deny it makes a certain kind of sense. There's always been some amount of speculation on the matter, because while Natalia has the late queen's eye color - the almost sharp yellow-leaning green from which Queen Olivine's name came, a contrast to the more blue green of the Kimlascan redheads - she's also _blonde_. Which is next to unheard of in the immediate royal family, and Her Majesty was dark-haired. You never met her, but you've seen plenty of portraits.

"What does it matter how you were born?" Luke says. "You're my _cousin_. You've been Natalia since you were a baby - you don't even have another name!"

"I might," Natalia whispers. "A name I never even knew..."

Luke looks at her, and snorts. "Yeah, well, until you know for sure, you're Natalia. And even afterwards, you're still my family."

"...Thank you, Luke," Natalia says, reaching up to wipe her eyes. "If only it were that simple. But if I'm not the princess, then how can we hope to stop this war?"

"If you're not the princess, then Asch is the heir," you point out. "I'm sure Mohs realizes how badly _that_ would go for him."

"Would it, though?" Luke says. "If Asch is here, he can't be in Daath."

You make a face. "That's a good point. I guess it depends on where Mohs thinks he's more dangerous - in Baticul, or supporting Ion."

"Even if he did return, Asch wouldn't be able to influence the court very much for some years," Natalia says. "He might be the heir, but he doesn't know the court politics well enough. He wouldn't know who to appeal to to stand against Fa- against His Majesty."

You elect not to comment on her shift in wording. Instead, you sigh. "I guess he can't know everything."

"It would be unfair to expect him to," Natalia agrees. "Even as much as he tries."

"Just get him to take you on as an advisor," Luke says. "Problem solved."

Natalia sighs. "It wouldn't be that simple," she says. "In this case... Exile is the best sentence we can hope for."

A dark thought crosses your mind. "Exile, as a cover for delivery to Akzeriuth," you say. "That's probably what they'll do."

Natalia doesn't speak. Luke, aggravated, scrubs at the hair on the back of his neck. "Ugh, there's too much to worry about!" he says. "There's no point in freaking out over it when we can't change anything until tomorrow, anyway."

"Perhaps you're right," Natalia says. "Let's... Let's get some sleep, then."

You nod, and stand up. Luke helps Natalia to her feet, and together the three of you make your way to the one bedroom. It's not _that_ strange to you at this point, after the camping you've done, to share a room with a woman, but Natalia still insists that you and Luke split the bed while she sleeps on the divan. You don't have the energy to argue. Instead you and Luke move the wardrobe in front of the door

It's only when the lights are off, and you think he's asleep, that you hear Luke sniffling. Without a word, you roll over and wrap an arm around his shoulders. He reaches up and squeezes your hand, but only says, "I wonder who has to deal with Mieu hogging their pillow tonight."

And like that, you fall asleep.

\----

In the morning, breakfast is delivered, but you wouldn't trust it even if you could eat, and Natalia wards Luke away from it.

"They wouldn't poison me," he points out.

"Not _deadly_ poison," you say. "They might still knock us out to separate us."

"Or drug our minds to ensure we can't defend ourselves at the trial," Natalia adds.

Luke doesn't look happy about it. "Fine," he says, "but if it gets to be more than two days, I'm eating. I won't be much help at the trial anyway."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," you say. "We should only need to get through today, and then the others will be here."

You don't know what they'll be able to do, but surely there has to be _something_. Even as you're thinking that, Natalia says, "And then what can we do?"

"I don't know, seek asylum in Malkuth?" you say. "I mean, Jade's best friends with the Emperor, isn't he? Surely he can pull a few strings for us. It's not like we're not already at war _anyway_."

"True enough," Natalia says with a sigh. "I suppose we can't get any more at war than we are."

The morning passes mostly in silence. You hear some kind of noise outside - through the window, not the door, but trying to open the glass reveals that it's been given a fonic lock that's far too advanced for any of you to figure out. Short of blowing the window open, which will _definitely_ raise an alarm, there's nothing you can see out of it.

Luke is just starting to pace restlessly when the door to your room opens, and a flustered looking nobleman comes in, accompanied by guards (of course) and a serving maid carrying a tray with three goblets on it.

"Meryl, imposter of the Princess of Kimlasca," he says, addressing Natalia, before turning to Luke. He just barely hesitates before continuing, "Imposter of Duke Fabre's son," and you stand up, helplessly angry that this man doesn't even give Luke the dignity of addressing him by _name_. You're not sure which is worse, calling Natalia by a name she's never heard before, or calling Luke no name at all.

The man barely glances at you, before gesturing the maidservant forward. He takes the tray from her and almost aggressively pushes it in Natalia's direction. "The Kingdom strips you both of the right of succession. As you were raised among the nobility, have the grace to take your own lives."

"What?" Luke says. "No, we get a trial, Uncle said - "

"A trial that leads only to an inglorious execution," the nobleman says. "One which will cause His Majesty great pain to preside over. Spare yourselves the indignity and the man you called Father the pain of watching you die."

Natalia stares at him. She extends a hand from where she's sitting on the couch, looking for a moment like she's going to take the goblet - 

And then stands up abruptly, shoving the tray into the nobleman's chest and spilling the poisoned wine all down the front of his robes. 

"How _dare_ you," she hisses. "How _dare_ you, Count Alpine. Even if the claims are true and I am _not_ a princess, how _dare_ you. I will not die quietly behind closed doors for the benefit of men who seek to bring war to my country!"

Alpine looks more startled than anything. You don't exactly get to see the goings on at court, but you know Natalia has a reputation for having an even temper. This might be the first time he's ever seen her angry.

(It might be the first time _you've_ seen her angry, with the kind of bone deep rage that drove you to Baticul in the first place, instead of petulance at not getting her way.)

He shoves the tray at the maidservant still standing to the side. "Very well, then," he says. "Let no one say I didn't try to be civilized about this. Guards - "

Natalia throws herself at him, hand pulled back, and lodges her complaint and her fist squarely in the short little bastard's face. You hear the snap of a breaking nose, and then the guards are lowering their halberds at Natalia and Luke is ripping the tray out of the maidservant's hands to try to block - 

And you feel a rise of fonons around you, and Ion's voice, shouting through the closed door, "Cover your eyes!"

You don't hesitate, throwing your arm over your face just as the door bursts open. Even with that, you can see the brilliant flash of white on the other side of your eyelids strongly enough to see spots when it's gone.

You drop your arm and open your eyes. The guards have dropped their halberds, and Luke kicked one out of reach while Natalia seized the other to shove the haft into the guard's stomach. You feel mildly useless, but you're not going to complain.

Ion and Anise stand in the kicked-open door, or at least, Ion stands and Anise rides on Tokunaga. She manipulates the puppet to knock the closer guard to the floor, crumpling him like an armored rag doll.

"Ion!" Luke shouts.

"Come, they won't stay dizzy for long!" Ion says back, already turning to sprint back down the hallway. The three of you follow, Anise bringing up the rear after pausing to return Tokunaga to a size better suited to carrying. She doesn't return the puppet to its usual place on her back, carrying it in one arm.

"Your timing is magnificent, Fon Master," Natalia says. "But how did you - "

"Later," Ion says. 

That's probably all the breath he can spare, so it's no surprise when Anise picks up where he left off, "Jade and Tear are searching the other side of the castle for you and Asch bolted off to do something at the Manor - don't ask me what, he just said to run for the doors as soon as we found you!"

"He'd better have a plan!" Luke says. "Do you think Jade and Tear heard that?"

"I gave them... a signal..." Ion says between breaths. "They'll meet us."

"After them!" shouts a set of guards too-close behind you. Luke doesn't even hesitate, grabbing a vase off a nearly plinth and throwing it in their direction.

"Luke!" Natalia almost shrieks. Probably because the vase was expensive.

"Yell at me later!" he replies, and there's the sound of the plinth being pushed over before he keeps running after you. Ion is already tiring, so he catches up quickly. 

You break into the main hall - you're on the second floor, which is no big deal of a jump for you or Luke, but a little much for Ion. You grab the Fon Master around the middle and go over the railing with him just as a flash of electricity catches your eye from the other hallway. Luke, Natalia, and Anise (on Tokunaga) land around you as you put Ion back on his feet.

"Good news, I brought presents!" Jade shouts over the sound of armored footsteps. He tosses a pair of swords down from his balcony at you, almost casually, before following them. You snatch them out of the air, pass one to Luke, and unsheathe the other. It's Kimlascan style, heavier than you prefer, but beggars can't be choosers. You close ranks around Ion and Natalia in the center, only stepping to the side to allow Jade to join your makeshift formation.

"What now?" you say. The guards are hanging back, but they've closed off all the obvious exits and are rapidly surrounding you.

"Well, I admit, this is a bit more of a difficult situation than we expected," Jade says. "Asch got suspicious when we found out that our encounter at the port was an ambush just for us, so we expected _some_ trouble, but..."

"How did you get here so quickly?" Natalia says.

"Oh, we arrived several hours ago and did a bit of investigating," Jade says with a shrug. "Our engineer friends were able to get that prototype of theirs working for us."

"You could have come sooner!" Luke says. 

"We stopped at the manor first," Tear says. "When the guards there didn't even know you were in the city, we made a plan to break in."

Anise, on Tokunaga, leans forward towards the guards. "What are they _waiting_ for?" she says. "They're just standing there."

"Mohs probably wants to come brag," you say, and Anise turns pale and goes quiet. Right, that's not a good thing for her, was it...

The doors of the throne room swing open, creaking in the silence. At the same time, there's a massive knock on the front doors, and a voice shouts, "Open up, by the order of House Fabre and Her Highness Princess Susanne!"

"Mother?" Luke says in quiet surprise. You nudge him with your hip, and everyone starts inching towards the entrance doors. " _That's_ what Asch was getting from the manor? He went for _Mother_?"

"Clever," Jade says. "Emotionally harrowing, no doubt, but clever."

"If," Natalia starts, stumbles, and starts again, "If I've been removed from the line of succession, then Aunt Susanne is the next in line."

"Removed from the line of succession?" Ion repeats. "What _happened_?"

More knocking at the doors. The guards glancing at each other, as Mohs and Ingobert descend the steps. Mohs has a trio of Oracle Knights with him.

"Open up!"

"Don't you dare!" Mohs shouts.

"You don't order them!" Luke shouts back. "They're Kimlascan! They don't have to listen to anyone but Uncle!"

"Luke..." you say with a sigh.

The front doors slam, but don't budge.

"Open the doors," calls a distinctly familiar voice, "or so help me, you won't _have_ doors anymore!"

Ingobert's eyes go wide. You don't think it's the threat that finally got through to him. "Open the doors!" he shouts.

The guards swing the doors open. Asch is the first one through; his hair is mussed, bangs in his face, and it's so uncharacteristic of him that it takes you a second to realize that it's intentional. That it's to make him look even more exactly like Luke, in spite of the dark clothes and thunderous expression.

Behind him, looking more serene but no less determined and backed by a dozen of House Fabre's white knights, is Lady Susanne. She practically glides behind her son (her _elder_ son), but the look she affixes upon Ingobert is...

Well. Maybe Asch didn't get that expression from his father after all.

Asch elbows his way into the circle of you, stopping only a moment to glare at Mohs, before turning his attention to Luke and Natalia. "Are you alright?" he asks, clearly trying to not be demanding with it.

"Thanks to the Fon Master's timely intervention," Natalia says. "It was a near thing, though."

"Thank you, Ion," Asch says, dipping his head in a little bow of acknowledgement. 

Ion _beams_ at him. "It was my pleasure, Asch," he says, loudly enough for everyone in the hall to hear, and you realize that this is intentional, making it explicit that who he's talking to and that the two of them are on a first name basis. "I'm glad I was able to help your family."

It's almost all performative. But the sharp way Ion looks at Ingobert isn't.

"Brother," Susanne says, descending the steps from the door to come to a stop next to her sons. The white knights remain where they are, guarding the open doors. "What is the meaning of this?"

Ingobert doesn't seem to have an answer for her. Whether it's because he's ashamed or just that under Mohs' thumb is hard to say. Either way, he doesn't stop Mohs from speaking for him.

"Those two are imposters to the throne," Mohs says, voice booming across the huge entrance hall. "A replica of your son, and a false princess planted by your kingdom's enemies - surely you don't intend to defend them, my lady? A girl of no real relation to you, and a replacement for your true son created on a fomicry machine?"

Susanne's eyes narrow. Some ingrained servant's instinct in you flinches back. You don't think you've ever seen her more than mildly displeased. This is a quiet, cold fury.

She turns away from Mohs without a word, and instead turns to Jade. "Colonel Curtiss," she says, her voice soft (soft enough that it demands silence from the rest of the room, everyone holding their breaths). "Please allow me to thank you. I know that you condemned the use of the technology you invented, but I confess, I cannot find it to be evil. Not when it has given me, a mother too frail to have any more children, a second, _wonderful_ son."

Silence. And then Luke, with a loud sniffle, crashes into his mother's side, throwing his arms around her and squeezing. And you decide right there, in the private part of yourself, that you can't think of either Luke or Asch as Duke Fabre's son anymore, not when they so obviously get forgiveness and kindness from their mother.

Susanne wraps an arm around Luke's shoulders, gently, and smiles. Jade, who you think is perhaps, for once, well and truly _got_ , bows deeply to her.

"It is my greatest relief that some good could come of the mistakes I made as a young man," he says evenly. "Your Highness."

Susanne gives him a look of warm approval. Mohs looks like he's about to choke, or maybe already has, with how he's struggling to keep his face from turning purple.

"As for the _other_ accusation," Susanne says, turning back towards her brother without removing her arm from Luke's shoulders, "surely you don't place more value on the words of this man than you do on those of your own daughter, Ingobert?"

Ingobert looks down. It's kind of pitiful, really, watching a _king_ so intimidated by his younger sister. "It is not his words alone," Ingobert says. "We have testimony from Meryl's true grandmother, who served as one of my wife's attendants during and after the birth. And we were... able to recover the body, at the location she supplied."

Susanne frowns. "It couldn't have been long after the birth, then?" she asks.

"A matter of a few hours," Ingobert admits.

"Then I see no reason to believe that the Natalia beside me is anything other than my niece," Susanne replies. "She is the only one I have ever known. She is the only one _you_ have ever known. Lest you forget, Ingobert, I held her first."

You bite your lip to keep yourself from emitting a low whistle. That's something about Kimlascan birth traditions, allowing only female relatives in until the first day is past, but Susanne makes the gentle words into a vicious condemnation. You glance away - Natalia looks about to cry or possibly join Luke in hug-rushing Susanne, Asch looks a combination of smug and proud, and Jade is adjusting his glasses in a way that means _I find this most satisfactory, please continue_. Anise looks a little bit starstruck. Ion is trying to hide his true smile in his bland smile and not being entirely successful.

"She is not of our blood," Ingobert says. "She cannot inherit the throne."

"Then remove her from the succession if you _must_ ," Susanne says, angry and exasperated. "But she is your daughter of nineteen years, even if she is not your daughter of a night twenty years ago."

Natalia makes a _sound_ , and then says, "Aunt Susanne, please..."

Susanne smiles, and reaches out for Natalia, who immediately accepts folding a hand over her aunt's. "Don't you worry, my dear," she says. "I will find a way to work things out with your father to a... _satisfactory_ conclusion. With both my boys nearly grown and capable of fending for themselves, I think it's high time I returned to the court."

"...Thank you," Natalia says, squeezing her eyes closed for a moment.

"I imagine my husband will have things to say on the matter as well, when he returns from the front," Susanne says. "For now - it has been a trying day for everyone, hasn't it? I think it best if we adjourn for now, and I take my family back to the manor with me." 

"I..." Ingobert hesitates, and then says, "Yes, perhaps that would be for the best. Please go in good health, sister."

"We will speak tomorrow," Susanne replies, dipping in a bow. Luke finally releases her as she does so, wiping his eyes, you all awkwardly mimic her to various appropriate degrees. Even Asch, who shoots a parting look at Mohs before nudging his foot into Ion's.

Ion, on that signal, turns back, just for a moment, to address his supposed subordinate. "In the future, Grand Maestro," he says, "I hope that you will bring such sensitive matters to my attention, so that we can best decide how to proceed, for the good of Auldrant."

"I understand, Fon Master," Mohs says, and you can practically hear him gritting his teeth as he bows.

Susanne nods, and turns to lead the group of you out of the castle and across the square to the manor. By this time, a number of people have gathered outside the doors, some of them nobles but just as many of them commoners, servants and laborers alike.

You must admit, it has to be quite a sight. Susanne pauses at the door, offering Asch her arm, and he takes it like a proper gentleman, like he hasn't spent a single day out of Baticul in the last seven years. Luke falls in on his mother's other side, and they're a damn striking sight, Susanne in Lanvaldear green flanked by identical sons in black and white. Natalia attaches herself to Luke's other side and walks with her head held high, while Ion tails just behind and beside Asch, flanked by Anise and Tear two appropriate steps back. It looks rehearsed. It looks like family.

You catch Jade's eye, and he just shrugs at you helplessly. "Bringing up the rear is the lot of a commoner, I suppose," he says. The way his glasses flash in the afternoon sunlight practically screams, _But you're not a commoner, and we both know it._

You snort a false laugh and ignore him to tail an appropriate distance behind Luke, like you belong there. You wouldn't know where else to stand.

\----

You're all barely into the entrance hall when what feels like a marching formation falls apart. Somehow in the course of crossing the courtyard to the manor gates, you accumulated dozens of well-wishers, a huge bundle of flowers that occupies Natalia's arms, and probably more rumors than Baticul has seen in years. Once you're inside, Natalia lifts the bouquet at one of the maids hovering just inside the doors and says, "Would one of you please take these?"

"Of course, Your Highness!" the maid chirps. You think she might be just a little relieved that she has an excuse to duck out without figuring out how to address the behemoth in the room that is the other maids trying to figure out how to address the two "Young Master Luke"s.

Asch looks like he's about reached his limit of people innocently calling him Luke for the day, but that's not the only reason you squeeze your way in and say, "Can I borrow you for a second?"

Asch nods, and the two of you duck over to the side of the entrance hall. There's not really far to go at the moment, but Susanne seems to be settling the others in. "What is it?"

"Is Pere still here?" you say. "Is he okay?"

Asch's expression twists. "Why wouldn't he be?"

"Van told Mohs," you say, forcing the words out in the gaps between the splinters of betrayal in your chest. "And Mohs told... Well, His Majesty and everybody, it looks like, that I was a collaborator in what happened to you because I'm a Hod survivor who wanted revenge."

Black hatred flares to life behind Asch's scowl. "No news of anything reached the manor. They were trying to keep it confined to the castle."

That makes sense, but it's still a relief to hear. Your shoulders sag as you exhale. "Good," you say. "That's... good."

Asch glances at the rest of the group. The question is clear even before he opens his mouth, so you say, "I told Luke and Natalia the truth. There's... not really a point in hiding it anymore." Not when Ion and Anise are the only people in the group who don't know.

Asch nods, and then turns to the group and says, "Mother, could you keep everyone in here for a bit?" It's strange to see him so polite.

Susanne looks faintly surprised. "I was going to move everyone to the sitting room, but I suppose there's no reason we can't stay here," she says.

Asch smiles at her. By his standards, it's beaming, which is almost unsettling. "Thank you. I'll return shortly."

And then he darts off through the servant door like he owns the place, which on some level he does, but it's still bizarre to watch. Luke using the servant's passages always had an air of arrogance and _this is just more convenient_ to it; Asch just disregards the concept of propriety entirely.

You hear a startled "Master Luke?" from the other side of the door and a muffled "Don't call me that," and you laugh to yourself silently.

"Where's he going in such a hurry?" Luke asks.

"No idea," you say. As the others settle in at the table, you find yourself gravitating to your old spot beneath your father's sword. Jade also hovers rather than sitting, but that's typical for him.

"Can someone explain what just happened?" Anise says. "That was a lot."

"Mohs convinced King Ingobert to have Natalia and Luke removed from the line of succession as imposters," you say. "Without Natalia, Lady Susanne is the next in line, then Asch. Now Luke's back in the succession, _after_ Asch, because his mother acknowledged him."

You're not sure you've ever heard of a _mother_ having to make a formal acknowledgement like that, rather than a father, but nothing about the situation is straightforward anyway.

"It is a bit more complicated than that," Susanne admits, "but you can leave worrying about the formal bureaucracy to me. I'm only sorry that I wasn't able to do more."

"You did everything you could," Natalia says. She's sitting next to her aunt at the head of the table, across from Luke, and reaches out to squeeze her hand again. "Don't blame yourself."

"To be clear," Jade says, "this only restores Luke's position in the royal line, correct? Asch is still the sole heir to the Fabre estates unless His Grace also acknowledges Luke."

Susanne nods.

"That's fine," Luke says. "That's more than enough. I don't care if he acknowledges me or not - he never really accepted me anyway."

Natalia sighs, and then turns to Jade. "You should be thanking her as well. You're under House Lanvaldear's protection, now."

Jade reaches up to adjust his glasses. "Oh? How so?"

Natalia blinks at him, as though surprised he _doesn't_ know something, and says, "She thanked you for providing her with a son. Politically speaking, she acknowledged you as Luke's father, at least until Duke Fabre does so."

"...Ah," Jade says, and he actually looks awkward. He covers it as best he can with a bow. "In that case, you have my deepest gratitude, Your Highness."

"I change my mind," Luke says. "Please tell Father to acknowledge me as soon as he gets here."

"And what have I done to deserve such an ungrateful son?" Jade says, clearly faking an emotional wound.

"Everything," Luke replies immediately. There's scattered chuckling, though you note that for once, Anise's giggling is absent.

"We shouldn't stay in Baticul long," Ion says, glancing at her. "I'm sure that after failing here, Mohs will go somewhere else to pursue his objectives. I think it might be time for me to return to Daath properly, at least for a little while."

Anise lifts her head, her entire face lighting up, and she reaches out and squeezes Ion's hand. No one comments on it.

"It's the most likely place to find leads on what my brother is up to, as well," Tear says. "Aside from forcing the Fon Master to open the Daathic seals, we have no idea what he's been doing."

"And most of that was Sync," Ion says with a sigh. "It's true, what Van is doing is a mystery right now. I believe the Tartarus put in at another port between Meggiora and Daath, and he disembarked there, but whether that was Belkend or somewhere else entirely - even a separate ship - I cannot say."

"At least we can rule out Sheridan for the time being," Jade says. "With tensions between Daath and Sheridan, he would have had a cold welcome there even before our arrival."

"And we would have heard something," Tear agrees. "Considering our own comings and goings were noticed..."

"There's nothing to be done about that," Ion says. "Present company excepted, the Intelligence Division is loyal to Mohs, and when it comes to the spread of information, they're a force to be reckoned with."

"And we already know he's not above blackmail," you feel compelled to add, though you can't look at Anise as you say it. Instead, you glance at the servant door. "What's taking Asch, anyway?"

"He probably got lost," Luke says. "I mean, it _has_ been seven years since he was last here. Stuff gets moved around."

Even as Luke says it, there's the gentle thump of someone kicking the door. "Can someone open this?" Asch's voice says from the other side, just shy of shouting.

You move to do so, on servant autopilot, but Jade is closer and pulls the door open with a sigh. Asch comes through carrying a decent-sized stepladder, which at least explains why he took so long. You think that's the one from the garden shed.

He walks over to you and says, "I warned Pere not to leave the manor for a while. He should be fine."

"Oh," you say. "Thanks, but - "

Asch ignores you and leans the folded stepladder against the column where your father's sword hangs, rolling his shoulder before turning to his mother at the table and giving a slight bow.

"Please inform Father that this is the only piece of inheritance I care about, and I'm not taking no for an answer," he says. "He can disown me for it if he wants."

Then he opens the stepladder and climbs up onto it, reaching for your father's sword. Your train of thought stutters, and you say, "Hey, wait, what are you - "

Asch pulls the sword loose from its mounting and hops lightly down from the stepladder. He keeps the blade pressed against his arm, offering the hilt to you.

"Gailardia Galan Gardios, Count Gardios of Hod," he says, and you can't respond or move because you're too busy feeling your jaw disconnect from your skull. "I know that this is no reparation for what my family has done to your people - what I, personally, have done to your people. But I return to you this sword in the hopes that it can begin to mend the rift between our families, and repair the wounds that still remain from the Hod War."

It's all very formal. But more than that, it's _Kimlascan_ formal, Asch letting himself drop fully into an accented royal drawl compared to his usual clipped, half-Daathic register. Combined with the fact that he still hasn't fixed his hair into its normal style, it makes him all the more eerily like Luke.

Maybe in a way, he is Luke, right now, the Luke who disappeared without being able to say goodbye. The Luke you came here to kill, extending to you a hand, saying, _I can't make it right, but I want to try._

(Not that Asch has ever believed that making things right was too much of a task for one person. He hasn't let that kind of thing stop him yet, and you doubt he's ever going to.)

Silence. You feel everyone's eyes on you, and you wrap your hand around the hilt.

It feels like it fits there. You've never been one for fancy swords, couldn't imagine yourself using one, and certainly not one with such an ornate crossguard that almost wraps all the way around your wrist. 

You planned to take your revenge with this sword. You never thought about how the Jewel of Gardios would feel in your hand in any other context.

You tear your gaze away from the blade, back to Asch. He looks like he's waiting, trying to hold together what patience he has.

Your impulse is to joke, to laugh it off, _Do you have to do everything so dramatically?_

But instead you say, "I don't know if I'm worthy of this. You talk like you're the one who needs to earn my forgiveness, when it's the other way around. For a person who hates betrayal as much as you do, I really feel like you've always let me off easy."

Asch moves like he's about to say something, but you hold up your hand to stop him. "And maybe that's what we need to put an end to this," you say. "Maybe the only way to move on is to let it go - to agree that neither of us deserves the other's forgiveness, and keep walking together anyway."

There, now you're done. You shift your sword to your other hand, so that you can offer your right to Asch.

He's gotten a little better at not looking surprised when someone chooses to stand by him. Asch takes your hand without hesitation, and shakes it firmly. And, well, that's that.

It breaks the spell over the others. That, or Jade's sigh does. "Well, touching as that was," he says, "I do think Asch had an ulterior motive as well. Though I feel a bit foolish for not being able to place the sword in the entrance myself. Nobody's perfect, I suppose."

He's doing the thing where he pretends whatever he's figured out should be obvious to everyone. It's clearly not obvious to anyone except Asch, who rolls his eyes before letting go of your hand.

"Uh, explain?" Luke says.

"The classical, famous swordmanship style of Hod is the _Albert_ style," Asch says.

Ion pauses, and then groans slightly, which you've never seen him do before but might be warranted at the moment. " _Albert_ esque seal. Of course."

"Wait, so that sword is the key to the seal?" Luke says, looking between Ion and the sword in your hand. "How did you figure _that_ out?"

"It makes sense," Tear says. "If Van is telling the truth, then our family already watched over the Seventh Fonstone... And we were always closely associated with the Gardios family."

"Watching over everything on Hod without anyone ever knowing..." Natalia says. "It feels strange to imagine such a thing."

"There have been people watching over the Score since Yulia's time," Ion says. "This is just one more facet of that, in a way."

Tear nods. "And even then, some knowledge is lost," she says. "If Van had known about the sword, I can't imagine it would still be here."

"He would have had a hard time claiming it," Jade points out. "It's one thing for the young master of the house to return one of his father's war trophies to its proper owner. It's another thing entirely for a stranger to the family, without an acknowledged claim, to try to do so."

"And stealing it would be pretty much impossible," you add. "I've thought about it a lot, trust me."

"I can only imagine," Natalia says. "Your father's sword hanging right in front of you... No wonder you spent so much time here."

Susanne, quiet and watching up to this point, steps forward and bows to you. It's a slightly lower bow than is appropriate, until you remember that while Asch might not be familiar with the intricacies of Malkuth's current succession, his mother _definitely_ would be. You're not sure you're ready for that.

"Count Gardios," she starts, and you wave her to a stop immediately.

"Please, Your Highness," you say. "I haven't lived as a member of the Gardios family since I was five years old. Just call me Guy."

She smiles faintly. "Only if you agree to call me Susanne," she says, and that's the face of the woman who always made sure to slip you a piece of candy at the same time she did her son. It's a face you were too blinded by revenge to see before you got too old for candy.

"...I'll try," you say sheepishly. 

It seems to be good enough. "If there's anything I can do," she says, "please don't hesitate to ask. It shouldn't fall only to Asch to make amends with your house."

Oh boy, you are so unprepared for actual politics. You hope it doesn't show too badly. "The only thing I would ask is that you take care of Pere for me," you say. "He raised me and kept me safe growing up, so in a way, he's the only family I have left."

(Because, well, Van can rot. And you're not nearly close enough to Tear to call her family out of only the common connection to her brother.)

"He'll be safe and taken care of here," Susanne says. "I promise."

"Thank you," you say, bowing.

"Is that it?" Luke asks. "Because, no offense, but we didn't eat breakfast this morning because we were worried about it being poisoned, so..."

Your stomach suddenly remembers this as soon as he mentions food. You wince. "Okay, yeah, and some food would be good," you agree.

Susanne smiles and waves her hand at one of the maids standing on the edge of the room. "I'll see to it."

\----

After the meal, Jade points out that you're not the only one in need of a new weapon, since no one weren't able to locate the ones taken from you at the castle. Susanne just smiles, and vanishes into her rooms for a while.

When she returns, it's with servants carrying two boxes. The first one is set in front of Luke.

"This was intended to be a reward for when you completed your sword training," Susanne says. "Then I let Crimson talk me into holding it until you returned from Akzeriuth. Well, you have need of it now, so I see no reason not to give it to you."

It's a single-edged blade, a little thinner, longer, and straighter than the one Luke picked up in Malkuth. He draws it from its sheath, and you see that the quality of the metal is much higher. There's an engraving along the back of the blade, but whatever it says causes Luke to flush and slide it back into its sheath quickly.

"Thank you, Mother," he says. "I'll take good care of it, I promise."

Susanne nods, and turns to Natalia, gesturing for the other box. When Natalia opens it, she gasps.

"Aunt Susanne, this is..."

"I'm not going to get any more use out of it," Susanne says. "It's been in that box since Asch was a toddler. I'd rather you have it."

Natalia lifts the bow from the box - unstrung, but clearly both valuable and well cared-for. The royal family's crest is worked in red inlay just above the grip. "Thank you," Natalia says, turning it over in her hands. "Thank you so much."

With that, you all get ready to leave. As you're exiting the manor, you say, "Wait, so Jade mentioned that you guys got here on a 'prototype.' Does that mean - is it - ?" You trip over your words in your excitement.

Ion smiles brightly at you and says, "Why don't you come see for yourself?"

\----

It is.

Maybe, you conclude as you settle yourself into a seat on board the _Albiore II_ , things are going to be pretty okay after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Next time: Arietta sidestory "Stage Weapons," followed by Anise story "watch your footwork"!


End file.
